arXiv subjects

Brad E. Tucker

Publications and source records attributed to Brad E. Tucker.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

SN1991bg-like supernovae are associated with old stellar populations

SN1991bg-like supernovae are a distinct subclass of thermonuclear supernovae (SNe Ia). Their spectral and photometric peculiarities indicate their progenitors and explosion mechanism differ from `normal' SNe Ia. One method of determining information about supernova progenitors we cannot directly observe is to observe the stellar population adjacent to the apparent supernova explosion site to infer the distribution of stellar population ages and metallicities. We obtain integral field observations and analyse the spectra extracted from regions of projected radius $\sim\,\mathrm{kpc}$ about the apparent SN explosion site for 11 91bg-like SNe in both early- and late-type galaxies. We utilize full-spectrum spectral fitting to determine the ages and metallicities of the stellar population within the aperture. We find that the majority of the stellar populations that hosted 91bg-like supernovae have little recent star formation. The ages of the stellar populations suggest that that 91bg-like SN progenitors explode after delay times of $>6\,\mathrm{Gyr}$, much longer than the typical delay time of normal SNe Ia, which peaks at $\sim 1\,\mathrm{Gyr}$.

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arXiv2018

Probing type Ia supernova properties using bolometric light curves from the Carnegie Supernova Project and the CfA Supernova Group

We present bolometric light curves constructed from multi-wavelength photometry of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the Carnegie Supernova Project and the CfA Supernova Group, using near-infrared observations to provide robust constraints on host galaxy dust extinction. This set of light curves form a well-measured reference set for comparison with theoretical models. Ejected mass and synthesized $^{56}$Ni mass are inferred for each SN Ia from its bolometric light curve using a semi-analytic Bayesian light curve model, and fitting formulae provided in terms of light curve width parameters from the SALT2 and SNooPy light curve fitters. A weak bolometric width-luminosity relation is confirmed, along with a correlation between ejected mass and the bolometric light curve width. SNe Ia likely to have sub-Chandrasekhar ejected masses belong preferentially to the broad-line and cool-photosphere spectroscopic subtypes, and have higher photospheric velocities and populate older, higher-mass host galaxies than SNe Ia consistent with Chandrasekhar-mass explosions. Two peculiar events, SN 2006bt and SN 2006ot, have normal peak luminosities but appear to have super-Chandrasekhar ejected masses.

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arXiv2018

SN 2012fr: Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared Light Curves of a Type Ia Supernova Observed Within a Day of Explosion

We present detailed ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared light curves of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2012fr, which exploded in the Fornax cluster member NGC 1365. These precise high-cadence light curves provide a dense coverage of the flux evolution from $-$12 to $+$140 days with respect to the epoch of $B$-band maximum (\tmax). Supplementary imaging at the earliest epochs reveals an initial slow, nearly linear rise in luminosity with a duration of $\sim$2.5 days, followed by a faster rising phase that is well reproduced by an explosion model with a moderate amount of $^{56}$Ni mixing in the ejecta. From an analysis of the light curves, we conclude: $(i)$ explosion occurred $< 22$ hours before the first detection of the supernova, $(ii)$ the rise time to peak bolometric ($λ> 1800 $Å) luminosity was $16.5 \pm 0.6$ days, $(iii)$ the supernova suffered little or no host-galaxy dust reddening, $(iv)$ the peak luminosity in both the optical and near-infrared was consistent with the bright end of normal Type Ia diversity, and $(v)$ $0.60 \pm 0.15 M_{\odot}$ of $^{56}$Ni was synthesized in the explosion. Despite its normal luminosity, SN 2012fr displayed unusually prevalent high-velocity \ion{Ca}{2} and \ion{Si}{2} absorption features, and a nearly constant photospheric velocity of the \ion{Si}{2} $λ$6355 line at $\sim$12,000 \kms\ beginning $\sim$5 days before \tmax. Other peculiarities in the early phase photometry and the spectral evolution are highlighted. SN 2012fr also adds to a growing number of Type Ia supernovae hosted by galaxies with direct Cepheid distance measurements.

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arXiv2018

New Parallaxes of Galactic Cepheids from Spatially Scanning the Hubble Space Telescope: Implications for the Hubble Constant

We present new parallax measurements of 7 long-period (> 10 days) Milky Way Cepheids (SS CMa, XY Car, VY Car, VX Per, WZ Sgr, X Pup and S Vul) using astrometry from spatial scanning of WFC3 on HST. Observations were obtained at 6 month intervals over 4 years. The distances are 1.7--3.6 kpc with a mean precision of 45 microarcseconds and a best of 29 microarcseconds (SNR = 14). The accuracy of the parallaxes is demonstrated through independent analyses of >100 reference stars. This raises to 10 the number of long-period Cepheids with significant parallax measurements, 8 obtained from this program. We also present high-precision F555W, F814W, and F160W magnitudes of these Cepheids, allowing a direct, zeropoint-independent comparison to >1800 extragalactic Cepheids in the hosts of 19 SNeIa. This sample addresses two outstanding systematic uncertainties affecting prior comparisons of Milky Way and extragalactic Cepheids used to calibrate H_0: their dissimilarity of periods and photometric systems. Comparing the new parallaxes to their predicted values derived from reversing the distance ladder gives a ratio (or independent scale for H_0) of 1.037+/-0.036, consistent with no change and inconsistent at the 3.5 sigma level with a ratio of 0.91 needed to match the value predicted by Planck+LCDM. Using these data instead to augment the Riess et al. (2016) measurement of H_0 improves the precision to 2.3%, yielding 73.48+/-1.66 km/s/Mpc, and tension with Planck+LCDM increases to 3.7 sigma. The future combination of Gaia parallaxes and HST spatial scanning photometry of 50 Milky Way Cepheids can support a < 1% calibration of H_0.

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arXiv2017

Convolutional Neural Networks for Transient Candidate Vetting in Large-Scale Surveys

Current synoptic sky surveys monitor large areas of the sky to find variable and transient astronomical sources. As the number of detections per night at a single telescope easily exceeds several thousand, current detection pipelines make intensive use of machine learning algorithms to classify the detected objects and to filter out the most interesting candidates. A number of upcoming surveys will produce up to three orders of magnitude more data, which renders high-precision classification systems essential to reduce the manual and, hence, expensive vetting by human experts. We present an approach based on convolutional neural networks to discriminate between true astrophysical sources and artefacts in reference-subtracted optical images. We show that relatively simple networks are already competitive with state-of-the-art systems and that their quality can further be improved via slightly deeper networks and additional preprocessing steps -- eventually yielding models outperforming state-of-the-art systems. In particular, our best model correctly classifies about 97.3% of all 'real' and 99.7% of all 'bogus' instances on a test set containing 1,942 'bogus' and 227 'real' instances in total. Furthermore, the networks considered in this work can also successfully classify these objects at hand without relying on difference images, which might pave the way for future detection pipelines not containing image subtraction steps at all.

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arXiv2017

Diffuse Galactic antimatter from faint thermonuclear supernovae in old stellar populations

Our Galaxy hosts the annihilation of a few $\times 10^{43}$ low-energy positrons every second. Radioactive isotopes capable of supplying such positrons are synthesised in stars, stellar remnants, and supernovae. For decades, however, there has been no positive identification of a main stellar positron source leading to suggestions that many positrons originate from exotic sources like the Galaxy's central super-massive black hole or dark matter annihilation. %, but such sources would not explain the recently-detected positron signal from the extended Galactic disk. Here we show that a single type of transient source, deriving from stellar populations of age 3-6 Gyr and yielding ~0.03 $M_\odot$ of the positron emitter $^{44}$Ti, can simultaneously explain the strength and morphology of the Galactic positron annihilation signal and the solar system abundance of the $^{44}$Ti decay product $^{44}$Ca. This transient is likely the merger of two low-mass white dwarfs, observed in external galaxies as the sub-luminous, thermonuclear supernova known as SN1991bg-like.

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arXiv2017

The SkyMapper Transient Survey

The SkyMapper 1.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory has now begun regular operations. Alongside the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital survey of the entire southern sky, SkyMapper will carry out a search for supernovae and other transients. The search strategy, covering a total footprint area of ~2000 deg2 with a cadence of $\leq 5$ days, is optimised for discovery and follow-up of low-redshift type Ia supernovae to constrain cosmic expansion and peculiar velocities. We describe the search operations and infrastructure, including a parallelised software pipeline to discover variable objects in difference imaging; simulations of the performance of the survey over its lifetime; public access to discovered transients; and some first results from the Science Verification data.

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arXiv2016

Optical Identification of Cepheids in 19 Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae and NGC 4258 with the Hubble Space Telescope

We present results of an optical search for Cepheid variable stars using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 19 hosts of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and the maser-host galaxy NGC 4258, conducted as part of the SH0ES project (Supernovae and H0 for the Equation of State of dark energy). The targets include 9 newly imaged SN Ia hosts using a novel strategy based on a long-pass filter that minimizes the number of HST orbits required to detect and accurately determine Cepheid properties. We carried out a homogeneous reduction and analysis of all observations, including new universal variability searches in all SN Ia hosts, that yielded a total of 2200 variables with well-defined selection criteria -- the largest such sample identified outside the Local Group. These objects are used in a companion paper to determine the local value of H0 with a total uncertainty of 2.4%.

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arXiv2016

The ANU WiFeS SuperNovA Program (AWSNAP)

This paper presents the first major data release and survey description for the ANU WiFeS SuperNovA Program (AWSNAP). AWSNAP is an ongoing supernova spectroscopy campaign utilising the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the Australian National University (ANU) 2.3m telescope. The first and primary data release of this program (AWSNAP-DR1) releases 357 spectra of 175 unique objects collected over 82 equivalent full nights of observing from July 2012 to August 2015. These spectra have been made publicly available via the WISeREP supernova spectroscopy repository. We analyse the AWSNAP sample of Type Ia supernova spectra, including measurements of narrow sodium absorption features afforded by the high spectral resolution of the WiFeS instrument. In some cases we were able to use the integral-field nature of the WiFeS instrument to measure the rotation velocity of the SN host galaxy near the SN location in order to obtain precision sodium absorption velocities. We also present an extensive time series of SN 2012dn, including a near-nebular spectrum which both confirms its "super-Chandrasekhar" status and enables measurement of the sub-solar host metallicity at the SN site.

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arXiv2016

Host Galaxy Identification for Supernova Surveys

Host galaxy identification is a crucial step for modern supernova (SN) surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will discover SNe by the thousands. Spectroscopic resources are limited, so in the absence of real-time SN spectra these surveys must rely on host galaxy spectra to obtain accurate redshifts for the Hubble diagram and to improve photometric classification of SNe. In addition, SN luminosities are known to correlate with host-galaxy properties. Therefore, reliable identification of host galaxies is essential for cosmology and SN science. We simulate SN events and their locations within their host galaxies to develop and test methods for matching SNe to their hosts. We use both real and simulated galaxy catalog data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys General Catalog and MICECATv2.0, respectively. We also incorporate "hostless" SNe residing in undetected faint hosts into our analysis, with an assumed hostless rate of 5%. Our fully automated algorithm is run on catalog data and matches SNe to their hosts with 91% accuracy. We find that including a machine learning component, run after the initial matching algorithm, improves the accuracy (purity) of the matching to 97% with a 2% cost in efficiency (true positive rate). Although the exact results are dependent on the details of the survey and the galaxy catalogs used, the method of identifying host galaxies we outline here can be applied to any transient survey.

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arXiv2016

A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant

We use the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to reduce the uncertainty in the local value of the Hubble constant (H_0) from 3.3% to 2.4%. Improvements come from new, near-infrared observations of Cepheid variables in 11 new hosts of recent SNe~Ia, more than doubling the sample of SNe~Ia having a Cepheid-calibrated distance for a total of 19; these leverage the magnitude-z relation based on 300 SNe~Ia at z<0.15. All 19 hosts and the megamaser system NGC4258 were observed with WFC3, thus nullifying cross-instrument zeropoint errors. Other improvements include a 33% reduction in the systematic uncertainty in the maser distance to NGC4258, more Cepheids and a more robust distance to the LMC from late-type DEBs, HST observations of Cepheids in M31, and new HST-based trigonometric parallaxes for Milky Way (MW) Cepheids. We consider four geometric distance calibrations of Cepheids: (i) megamasers in NGC4258, (ii) 8 DEBs in the LMC, (iii) 15 MW Cepheids with parallaxes, and (iv) 2 DEBs in M31. H_0 from each is 72.25+/-2.51, 72.04+/-2.67, 76.18+/-2.37, and 74.50+/-3.27 km/sec/Mpc, respectively. Our best estimate of 73.24+/-1.74 km/sec/Mpc combines the anchors NGC4258, MW, and LMC, and includes systematic errors for a final uncertainty of 2.4%. This value is 3.4 sigma higher than 66.93+/-0.62 km/sec/Mpc predicted by LambdaCDM with 3 neutrinos with mass 0.06 eV and the Planck data, but reduces to 2.1 sigma relative to the prediction of 69.3+/-0.7 km/sec/Mpc with the combination of WMAP+ACT+SPT+BAO, suggesting systematic uncertainties in CMB measurements may play a role in the tension. If we take the conflict between Planck and H_0 at face value, one plausible explanation could involve an additional source of dark radiation in the early Universe in the range of Delta N_eff=0.4-1. We anticipate significant improvements in H_0 from upcoming parallax measurements.

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arXiv2016

Light Curves of 213 Type Ia Supernovae from the ESSENCE Survey

The ESSENCE survey discovered 213 Type Ia supernovae at redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.81 between 2002 and 2008. We present their R and I-band photometry, measured from images obtained using the MOSAIC II camera at the CTIO 4 m Blanco telescope, along with rapid-response spectroscopy for each object. We use our spectroscopic follow-up observations to determine an accurate, quantitative classification and a precise redshift. Through an extensive calibration program we have improved the precision of the CTIO Blanco natural photometric system. We use several empirical metrics to measure our internal photometric consistency and our absolute calibration of the survey. We assess the effect of various potential sources of systematic bias on our measured fluxes, and we estimate that the dominant term in the systematic error budget from the photometric calibration on our absolute fluxes is ~1%.

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arXiv2016

Parallax of Galactic Cepheids from Spatially Scanning the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope: The Case of SS Canis Majoris

We present a high-precision measurement of the parallax for the 12-day Cepheid SS Canis Majoris, obtained via spatial scanning with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Spatial scanning enables astrometric measurements with a precision of 20-40 muas, an order of magnitude better than pointed observations. SS CMa is the second Cepheid targeted for parallax measurement with HST, and is the first of a sample of eighteen long-period >~ 10 days) Cepheids selected in order to improve the calibration of their period-luminosity relation and eventually permit a determination of the Hubble constant H_0 to better than 2%. The parallax of SS CMa is found to be 348 +/- 38 muas, corresponding to a distance of 2.9 +/- 0.3 kpc. We also present a refinement of the static geometric distortion of WFC3 obtained using spatial scanning observations of calibration fields, with a typical magnitude <~0.01 pixels on scales of 100 pixels.

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arXiv2014

Constraints on the Progenitor System of the Type Ia Supernova 2014J from Pre-Explosion Hubble Space Telescope Imaging

We constrain the properties of the progenitor system of the highly reddened Type Ia supernova (SN) 2014J in Messier 82 (M82; d ~ 3.5 Mpc). We determine the SN location using Keck-II K-band adaptive optics images, and we find no evidence for flux from a progenitor system in pre-explosion near-ultraviolet through near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. Our upper limits exclude systems having a bright red giant companion, including symbiotic novae with luminosities comparable to that of RS Ophiuchi. While the flux constraints are also inconsistent with predictions for comparatively cool He-donor systems (T < ~35,000 K), we cannot preclude a system similar to V445 Puppis. The progenitor constraints are robust across a wide range of R_V and A_V values, but significantly greater values than those inferred from the SN light curve and spectrum would yield proportionally brighter luminosity limits. The comparatively faint flux expected from a binary progenitor system consisting of white dwarf stars would not have been detected in the pre-explosion HST imaging. Infrared HST exposures yield more stringent constraints on the luminosities of very cool (T < 3000 K) companion stars than was possible in the case of SN Ia 2011fe.

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arXiv2013

SN 2009ip á la PESSTO: No evidence for core-collapse yet

We present observations of the interacting transient SN 2009ip, from the start of the outburst in October 2012 until the end of the 2012 observing season. The transient reached a peak of $M_V$=-17.7 mag before fading rapidly, with a total integrated luminosity of 1.9$\times10^{49}$ erg over the period of August-December 2012. The optical and near infrared spectra are dominated by narrow emission lines, signaling a dense circumstellar environment, together with multiple components of broad emission and absorption in H and He at velocities between 0.5-1.2$\times10^4$ km s$^{-1}$\. We see no evidence for nucleosynthesized material in SN 2009ip, even in late-time pseudo-nebular spectra. We set a limit of $<$0.02 M$_{\odot}$\ on the mass of any synthesized $^{56}$Ni from the late time lightcurve. A simple model for the narrow Balmer lines is presented, and used to derive number densities for the circumstellar medium of between $\sim 10^{9}-10^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$. Our near-infrared data does not show any excess at longer wavelengths. Our last data, taken in December 2012, shows that SN 2009ip has spectroscopically evolved to something quite similar to its appearance in late 2009, albeit with higher velocities. It is possible that neither of the eruptive and high luminosity events of SN 2009ip were induced by a core-collapse. We show that the peak and total integrated luminosity can be due to the efficient conversion of kinetic energy from colliding ejecta, and that around 0.05-0.1 M$_{\odot}$\ of material moving at 0.5-1$\times10^4$ km s$^{-1}$\ could comfortably produce the observed luminosity. The ejection of multiple shells, lack of evidence for nucleosynthesied elements and broad nebular lines, are all consistent with the pulsational-pair instability scenario. In this case the progenitor star may still exist, and will be observed after the current outburst fades.

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arXiv2012

The Very Young Type Ia Supernova 2012cg: Discovery and Early-Time Follow-Up Observations

On 2012 May 17.2 UT, only 1.5 +/- 0.2 d after explosion, we discovered SN 2012cg, a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) in NGC 4424 (d ~ 15 Mpc). As a result of the newly modified strategy employed by the Lick Observatory SN Search, a sequence of filtered images was obtained starting 161 s after discovery. Utilizing recent models describing the interaction of SN ejecta with a companion star, we rule out a ~1 M_Sun companion for half of all viewing angles and a red-giant companion for nearly all orientations. SN 2012cg reached a B-band maximum of 12.09 +/- 0.02 mag on 2012 June 2.0 and took ~17.3 d from explosion to reach this, typical for SNe Ia. Our pre-maximum brightness photometry shows a narrower-than-average B-band light curve for SN 2012cg, though slightly overluminous at maximum brightness and with normal color evolution (including some of the earliest SN Ia filtered photometry ever obtained). Spectral fits to SN 2012cg reveal ions typically found in SNe Ia at early times, with expansion velocities >14,000 km/s at 2.5 d past explosion. Absorption from C II is detected early, as well as high-velocity components of both Si II 6355 Ang. and Ca II. Our last spectrum (13.5 d past explosion) resembles that of the somewhat peculiar SN Ia 1999aa. This suggests that SN 2012cg will have a slower-than-average declining light curve, which may be surprising given the faster-than-average rising light curve.

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arXiv2012

Testing the gravitational lensing explanation for the MgII problem in GRBs

Sixty percent of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) reveal strong MgII absorbing systems, which is a factor of ~2 times the rate seen along lines-of-sight to quasars. The discrepancy in the covering factor is most likely to be the result of either quasars being obscured due to dust, or the consequence of many GRBs being strongly gravitationally lensed. We analyze observations of GRBs that show strong foreground MgII absorption. We Monte-Carlo the distances between foreground galaxies in the HUDF and lines of sight distributed randomly within a radius derived from the covering factor, and find that galaxies are located systematically closer to the position of the observed GRBs than expected for random lines of sight. This over-density at small impact parameters is statistically more robust than the well known excess of MgII absorbers among GRB afterglow spectra, and presents a new puzzle for MgII absorption studies. The over-density cannot be explained by obscuration in the GRB sample, but is a natural consequence of gravitational lensing. Upon examining the particular configurations of galaxies near a sample of GRBs with strong MgII absorption, we find several intriguing lensing candidates. Our results suggest that lensing provides a viable contribution to the observed enhancement of strong MgII absorption along lines of sight to GRBs, and we outline the future observations required to test this hypothesis conclusively.

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arXiv2011

UV Properties of Type Ia Supernova and their Host Galaxies

Type Ia Supernova(SN Ia) are a powerful, albeit not completely understood, tool for cosmology. Gaps in our understanding of their progenitors and detailed physics can lead to systematic errors in the cosmological distances they measure. We use UV data in two context to help further our understanding of SN Ia progenitors and physics. We analyze a set of nearly 700 light curves, and find no signature of the shock heating of a red giant companion, predicted by Kasen (2010), casting doubt as to frequency of this SN Ia channel. We also use UV imaging of high redshift host galaxies of SN Ia to better understand the environments which SN Ia occur. We show that some high-z elliptical galaxies have current star formation, hindering efforts to use them as low-extinction environments. We show cosmological scatter of SN distances at large effective radii in their hosts is significantly reduced, and argue this is due to the smaller amounts of dust affecting the SN Ia. Finally, we find a two component dependance of SN distance measurements as a function of their host galaxy's FUV-V color. This indicates that both the age and metallicity/mass of the host galaxy maybe important ingredients in measuring SN Ia distances.

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