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S. Taubenberger

Publications and source records attributed to S. Taubenberger.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

HOLISMOKES -- XVIII. Cosmology with strongly lensed type II supernovae: Effects of instrumental setups on $H_0$

The upcoming Rubin Observatory and subsequent follow-up observations should improve the determination of the Hubble constant ($H_0$) via time-delay cosmography of strongly lensed type II supernovae (LSNe II), by enabling the detection of many more such events. In our previous work, we developed a method for determining the supernova (SN) phase from spectral absorption features. Because obtaining spectra of faint targets such as distant SN II is expensive, we examined how low-resolution spectra influence the precision of time-delay retrieval, and consequently the precision on $H_0$. We considered spectral resolutions $R = \frac{\lambda}{\Delta \lambda}$ between 100 and 250, and we investigated three signal-to-noise ratio ($S/N$) values of 10, 15, and 20, for each resolution. Furthermore, we forecast the precision on $H_{0}$ achievable with $S/N=10$ and compared the observing time required to reach it with ground-based and space-based facilities. We find that the time delay can be determined without bias and with uncertainties as low as 1.3 days for the investigated resolutions and $S/N$ values when we combine time-delay measurements of multiple absorption lines. For a typical LSN II system (absolute magnitude $\sim-$17 mag in the rest-frame V band, source redshift of \zs = 0.8), the required exposure times range from multiple hours for ground-based observations to a few minutes for space-based observations with the JWST. Our predictions on the precision of $H_0$ for a single lensed SN range from 14.2\% for $R = 100$ and $S/N$ = 10 to 7.5\% for $R = 250$ and $S/N$ = 20, enabling a 1\% determination of $H_0$ from $\sim$20 lensed SNe in the coming years.

astro-ph.CO

HOLISMOKES XX. Lens models of binary lens galaxies with five images of Supernova Winny

Strongly lensed supernovae (SNe) provide a powerful way to study cosmology, SNe and galaxies. Modelling the lens system is key to extracting astrophysical and cosmological information. We present adaptive-optics-assisted high-resolution images of SN Winny (SN 2025wny) in the J and K filters obtained with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT imaging confirms the presence of a fifth point source, whose colour is consistent with that of the other SN images at similar phases, while lens modelling robustly supports its interpretation as an additional image of SN~Winny. We measure the positions of the five SN images with uncertainties varying between 1 and 14 milliarcseconds. We build the first mass models using lenstronomy and GLEE, and explore three classes of mass models for the two lens galaxies G1 and G2. The optimal model class of the three is a singular isothermal ellipsoid for G1, a singular isothermal sphere for G2, and an external shear. We infer the enclosed masses within the Einstein radius as 4.61^{+0.06}_{-0.04} \times 10^{11}\,M_\odot for G1 and 1.01\pm0.02 \times 10^{11}\,M_\odot for G2. The lensing configuration by the two lens galaxies can produce two additional magnified SN images beyond the five observed ones; the exclusion of such model configurations further constrains the lens model parameters. Our model fits to the observed image positions with an RMS of ~0.0012" - 0.0025", within the observed positional uncertainties. The predicted magnifications of the multiple images vary between ~1.6 (for the faintest fifth image E) to ~10 (for the brightest image A). The predicted relative lensing magnifications of the multiple images do not match that of the observed within 2\sigma uncertainties. The differences in the relative magnifications could be due to millilensing/microlensing. Our mass models form the basis for future analyses of this unique system. (abridged)

astro-ph.GA

Nested, asymmetric H-He circumstellar shells in the Type Icn/Ibn SN 2024abvb

Interacting transients probe mass loss in the final stages of stellar evolution; however, the geometry and timing of multi-episode mass loss remain poorly constrained. SN 2024abvb is a nearby interacting event with transitional Ibn/Icn spectroscopic properties and multi-epoch polarimetry, offering a rare opportunity to study structured circumstellar material (CSM). We aim to characterise the kinematics, composition and geometry of the CSM around SN 2024abvb and to identify plausible progenitor/ejection scenarios that can produce the observed spectro-polarimetric evolution. We present high-resolution (VLT/UVES and VLT/X-Shooter) optical/NIR spectroscopy across several epochs, complemented by broadband polarimetry and spectropolarimetry (VLT/FORS2 and NOT/ALFOSC). Line identifications, velocity decompositions and polarimetric time-series are used to trace multiple kinematic components and changes in scattering geometry. The high-resolution spectra reveal multiple narrow CSM components composed of He, C and O with absorption minima at $\sim150 - 400$ km s$^{-1}$ and additional faster material up to $\sim2000$ \kms. Low-velocity Balmer absorptions are present, indicating distant H-rich material, a first in SNe Ibn/Icn. Polarimetry shows a marked evolution ($P\sim1\%$ near peak, $\lesssim0.5\%$ after $\sim1$ week, rising to $\sim1.5\%$ at $\sim20$ d with $\sim50^\circ$ position-angle rotation and to $\sim4\%$ at $\sim30$ d, stronger in the blue), implying a time-variable, wavelength-dependent scattering/obscuration component. The combination of kinematics and polarimetric behaviour is consistent with multiple, concentric toroidal shells with differing orientations and partial dust content.

astro-ph.SR

SN 2022ngb: A faint, slowly evolving Type IIb supernova with a low-mass envelope

An extensive photometric and spectroscopic follow-up campaign of the Type IIb SN 2022ngb is presented in the article. Through detailed modeling of this dataset, we aim to constrain the key physical parameters of the explosion, infer the nature of the progenitor star and its environment, and probe the dynamical properties of the ejecta. We analyze photometric and spectroscopic data of SN 2022ngb. By constructing and modeling the bolometric light curve with semi-analytic models, we estimate the primary explosion parameters. The spectroscopic data are compared with those of well-studied SNe IIb and NLTE models to constrain the properties of the progenitor and the structure of the resulting ejecta. SN 2022ngb is a low-luminosity SN IIb with a peak bolometric luminosity of L_bol = 7.76 (+1.15/-1.00) x 10^41 erg/s and a V-band rising time of 24.32 +/- 0.50 days. Light curve modeling indicates an ejecta mass of ~2.9-3.2 M_sun, an explosion energy of ~1.4 x 10^51 erg, and a low synthesized 56Ni mass of ~0.045 M_sun. Nebular phase spectra exhibit asymmetric line profiles, pointing to a non-spherical explosion and an anisotropic distribution of radioactive material. Our analysis reveals a relatively compact stripped-envelope progenitor with a pre-SN mass of approximately 4.7 M_sun (corresponding to a 15-16 M_sun ZAMS star). Our analysis suggests that SN 2022ngb originated from the explosion of a moderate-mass relatively compact, stripped-envelope star in a binary system. The asymmetries inferred from the nebular phase spectral line features suggest a non-spherical explosion.

astro-ph.SR

An Agnostic Approach to Building Empirical Type Ia Supernova Light Curves: Evidence for Intrinsic Chromatic Flux Variation Using Nearby Supernova Factory Data

We present a new empirical Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) model with three chromatic flux variation templates: one phase dependent and two phase independent. No underlying dust extinction model or patterns of intrinsic variability are assumed. Implemented with Stan and trained using spectrally binned Nearby Supernova Factory spectrophotometry, we examine this model's 2D, phase-independent flux variation space using two motivated basis representations. In both, the first phase-independent template captures variation that appears dust-like, while the second captures a combination of effectively intrinsic variability and second-order dust-like effects. We find that approximately 13% of the modeled phase-independent flux variance is not dust-like. Previous empirical SN Ia models either assume an effective dust extinction recipe in their architecture, or only allow for a single mode of phase-independent variation. The presented results demonstrate such an approach may be insufficient, because it could "leak" noticeable intrinsic variation into phase-independent templates.

astro-ph.HE

Optical and Near-infrared Observations of SN 2023ixf for over 600 days after the Explosion

Context.We present a comprehensive photometric and spectroscopic study of the nearby Type II supernova (SN) 2023ixf, with our extensive observations spanning the phases from ~3 to over 600 days after the first light.\\ Aims.The aim of this study is to obtain key information on the explosion properties of SN\,2023ixf and the nature of its progenitor.\\ Methods.The observational properties of SN\,2023ixf are compared with those of a sample of Type IIP/L SNe to investigate commonalities and diversities. We conduct a detailed analysis of temporal evolution of major spectral features observed throughout different phases of the SN\,2023ixf explosion. Several interpretations are addressed through a comparison between the data and the model spectra for progenitor stars within a range of zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) masses.\\ Results.Our observations indicate that SN\,2023ixf is a transitional SN that bridges the gap between Type IIP and IIL subclasses of H-rich SNe, characterized by a relatively short plateau ($\lesssim 70$\,d) in the light curve. It shows a rather prompt spectroscopic evolution toward the nebular phase; emission lines of Na, O, H, and Ca in nebular spectra all exhibit multipeak profiles, which might be attributed to bipolar distribution of the ejecta. In particular, the H$\alpha$ profile can be separated into two central peaked components (with a velocity of about 1500\,km\,s$^{-1}$) that is likely due to nickel-powered ejecta and two outer peak/box components (with a velocity extending up to ~8000 km\,s$^{-1}$) that can arise from interaction of the outermost ejecta with a circumstellar shell at a distance of $\sim6.2\times10^{15}$cm. The nebular-phase spectra of SN\,2023ixf show good agreement with those predicted by model spectra for progenitor stars with a ZAMS mass ranging from 15 to 19\,M${_\odot}$. A distance $D = 6.35^{+0.31}_{-0.39}$\,Mpc is estimated for M101.

astro-ph.HE

A long-lasting eruption heralds SN 2023ldh, a clone of SN 2009ip

We discuss the results of the spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of the type IIn supernova (SN) 2023ldh. Survey archive data show that the SN progenitor experienced some erratic outbursts in the years before exploding. From May 2023, the source shows a general slow luminosity rise lasting over four months with some superposed luminosity fluctuations. In analogy to SN 2009ip, we label this brightening as Event A. During Event A, SN 2023ldh reaches a maximum absolute magnitude of Mr = -15.52 +- 0.24 mag. Then the light curves show a luminosity decline of about 1 mag in all filters lasting about two weeks, followed by a steep brightening (Event B) to an absolute peak magnitude of Mr = -18.53 +- 0.23 mag, replicating the evolution of SN 2009ip and similar SNe IIn. Three spectra of SN 2023ldh are obtained during Event A, showing multi-component P Cygni profiles of H I and Fe II lines. During the rise to the Event B peak, the spectrum shows a blue continuum dominated by Balmer lines in emission with Lorentzian profiles, with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) velocity of about 650 km/s. Later, in the post-peak phase, the spectrum reddens, and broader wings appear in the Halpha line profile. Metal lines are well visible with P Cygni profiles and velocities of about 2000 km/s. Beginning around three months past maximum and until very late phases, the Ca II lines become among the most prominent features, while Halpha is dominated by an intermediate-width component with a boxy profile. Although SN 2023ldh mimics the evolution of other SN 2009ip-like transients, it is slightly more luminous and has a slower photometric evolution. The surprisingly homogeneous observational properties of SN 2009ip-like events may indicate similar explosion scenarios and similar progenitor parameters.

astro-ph.SR

HOLISMOKES XVI: Lens search in HSC-PDR3 with a neural network committee and post-processing for false-positive removal

We have carried out a systematic search for galaxy-scale lenses exploiting multi-band imaging data from the third public data release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey with the focus on false-positive removal, after applying deep learning classifiers to all 110 million sources with i-Kron radius above 0.8". To improve the performance, we tested the combination of multiple networks from our previous lens search projects and found the best performance by averaging the scores from five of our networks. Although this ensemble network leads already to a false-positive rate (FPR) of 0.01% at a true-positive rate (TPR) of 75% on known real lenses, we have elaborated techniques to further clean the network candidate list before visual inspection. In detail, we tested the rejection using SExtractor and the modeling network from HOLISMOKES IX, which resulted together in a candidate rejection of 29% without lowering the TPR. We carried out a comprehensive multi-stage visual inspection involving eight individuals and identified 95 grade A (average grade G >2.5) and 503 grade B (2.5 >G >1.5) lens candidates, including 92 discoveries reported for the first time. This inspection also incorporated a novel environmental characterization using histograms of photometric redshifts. We publicly release the average grades, mass model predictions, and environment characterization of all visually inspected candidates, while including references for previously discovered systems, which makes this catalog one of the largest compilation of known lenses. The results demonstrate that (1) the combination of multiple networks enhances the selection performance and (2) both automated masking tools as well as modeling networks, which can be easily applied to hundreds of thousands of network candidates, help reduce the number of false positives that is the main limitation in lens search to date.

astro-ph.IM

Cosmology with Supernova Encore in the lensing cluster MACS J0138$-$2155 -- Spectroscopy with MUSE

We present a spectroscopic analysis of MACS J0138$-$2155, at $z=0.336$, the first galaxy cluster hosting two strongly-lensed supernovae (SNe), Requiem and Encore, providing us with a chance to obtain a reliable $H_0$ measurement from the time delays between the multiple images. We take advantage of new data from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope, covering a central $1 \rm \, arcmin^2$ of the lensing cluster, for a total depth of 3.7 hours, including 2.9 hours recently obtained by our Target of Opportunity programme. Our new spectroscopic catalogue contains reliable redshifts for 107 objects, including 50 galaxy cluster members with secure redshift values in the range $0.324 < z < 0.349$, and 13 lensed multiple images from four background sources between $0.767\leq z \leq 3.420$, including four images of the host galaxy of the two SNe. We exploit the MUSE data to study the stellar kinematics of 14 bright cluster members and two background galaxies, obtaining reliable measurements of their line-of-sight velocity dispersion. Finally, we combine these results with measurements of the total magnitude of the cluster members in the Hubble Space Telescope F160W band to calibrate the Faber-Jackson relation between luminosity and stellar velocity dispersion ($L \propto \sigma^{1/\alpha}$) for the early-type cluster member galaxies, measuring a slope $\alpha=0.25^{+0.05}_{-0.05}$. A pure and complete sample of cluster member galaxies and a reliable characterisation of their total mass structure are key to building accurate total mass maps of the cluster, mitigating the impact of parametric degeneracies, which is necessary for inferring the value of $H_0$ from the measured time delays between the lensed images of the two SNe.

astro-ph.GA

HOLISMOKES XV. Search for strong gravitational lenses combining ground-based and space-based imaging

In the past, researchers have mostly relied on single-resolution images from individual telescopes to detect gravitational lenses. We propose a search for galaxy-scale lenses that, for the first time, combines high-resolution single-band images (in our case the Hubble Space Telescope, HST) with lower-resolution multi-band images (in our case Legacy survey, LS) using machine learning. This methodology aims to simulate the operational strategies that will be employed by future missions, such as combining the images of Euclid and the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). To compensate for the scarcity of lensed galaxy images for network training, we have generated mock lenses by superimposing arc features onto HST images, saved the lens parameters, and replicated the lens system in the LS images. We test four architectures based on ResNet-18: (1) using single-band HST images, (2) using three bands of LS images, (3) stacking these images after interpolating the LS images to HST pixel scale for simultaneous processing, and (4) merging a ResNet branch of HST with a ResNet branch of LS before the fully connected layer. We compare these architecture performances by creating Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for each model and comparing their output scores. At a false-positive rate of $10^{-4}$, the true-positive rate is $\sim$0.41, $\sim$0.45, $\sim$0.51 and $\sim$0.55, for HST, LS, stacked images and merged branches, respectively. Our results demonstrate that models integrating images from both the HST and LS significantly enhance the detection of galaxy-scale lenses compared to models relying on data from a single instrument. These results show the potential benefits of using both Euclid and LSST images, as wide-field imaging surveys are expected to discover approximately 100,000 lenses.

astro-ph.IM

HOLISMOKES -- XIV. Time-delay and differential dust extinction determination with lensed type II supernova color curves

The Hubble tension is one of the most relevant unsolved problems in cosmology today. Strongly gravitationally lensed transient objects, such as strongly lensed supernovae, are an independent and competitive probe that can be used to determine the Hubble constant. In this context, the time delay between different images of lensed supernovae is a key ingredient. We present a method, to retrieve time delays and the amount of differential dust extinction between multiple images of lensed type IIP supernovae through their color curves, which display a kink in the time evolution. With multiple realistic mock color curves based on an observed unlensed supernova from the Carnegie Supernova Project, we demonstrate that we can retrieve the time delay with uncertainties of $\pm$1.0 days for light curves with 2-day cadence and 35% missing data due to weather losses. The differential dust extinction is more susceptible to uncertainties, because it depends on imposing the correct extinction law. Further we also investigate the kink structure in the color curves for different rest-frame wavelength bands, particularly rest-frame UV light curves from SWIFT, finding sufficiently strong kinks for our method to work for typical lensed SN redshifts that would redshift the kink feature to optical wavelengths. With the upcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, hundreds of strongly lensed supernovae will be detected and our new method for lensed SN IIP is readily applicable to provide delays.

astro-ph.CO

Type Ia supernova explosion models are inherently multidimensional

Theoretical and observational approaches to settling the important questions surrounding the progenitor systems and the explosion mechanism of normal Type Ia supernovae have thus far failed. With its unique capability to obtain continuous spectra through the near- and mid-infrared, JWST now offers completely new insights into Type Ia supernovae. In particular, observing them in the nebular phase allows us to directly see the central ejecta and thereby constrain the explosion mechanism. We aim to understand and quantify differences in the structure and composition of the central ejecta of various Type Ia supernova explosion models. We examined the currently most popular explosion scenarios using self-consistent multidimensional explosion simulations of delayed-detonation and pulsationally assisted, gravitationally confined delayed detonation Chandrasekhar-mass models and double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar-mass and violent merger models. We find that the distribution of radioactive and stable nickel in the final ejecta, both observable in nebular spectra, are significantly different between different explosion scenarios. Therefore, comparing synthetic nebular spectra with JWST observations should allow us to distinguish between explosion models. We show that the explosion ejecta are inherently multidimensional for all models, and the Chandrasekhar-mass explosions simulated in spherical symmetry in particular lead to a fundamentally unphysical ejecta structure. Moreover, we show that radioactive and stable nickel cover a significant range of densities at a fixed velocity of the homologously expanding ejecta. Any radiation transfer postprocessing has to take these variations into account to obtain faithful synthetic observables; this will likely require multidimensional radiation transport simulations.

astro-ph.HE

HOLISMOKES -- XI. Evaluation of supervised neural networks for strong-lens searches in ground-based imaging surveys

While supervised neural networks have become state of the art for identifying the rare strong gravitational lenses from large imaging data sets, their selection remains significantly affected by the large number and diversity of nonlens contaminants. This work evaluates and compares systematically the performance of neural networks in order to move towards a rapid selection of galaxy-scale strong lenses with minimal human input in the era of deep, wide-scale surveys. We used multiband images from PDR2 of the HSC Wide survey to build test sets mimicking an actual classification experiment, with 189 strong lenses previously found over the HSC footprint and 70,910 nonlens galaxies in COSMOS. Multiple networks were trained on different sets of realistic strong-lens simulations and nonlens galaxies, with various architectures and data pre-processing. The overall performances strongly depend on the construction of the ground-truth training data and they typically, but not systematically, improve using our baseline residual network architecture. Improvements are found when applying random shifts to the image centroids and square root stretches to the pixel values, adding z band, or using random viewpoints of the original images, but not when adding difference images to subtract emission from the central galaxy. The most significant gain is obtained with committees of networks trained on different data sets, and showing a moderate overlap between populations of false positives. Nearly-perfect invariance to image quality can be achieved by training networks either with large number of bands, or jointly with the PSF and science frames. Overall, we show the possibility to reach a TPR0 as high as 60% for the test sets under consideration, which opens promising perspectives for pure selection of strong lenses without human input using the Rubin Observatory and other forthcoming ground-based surveys.

astro-ph.GA

Reeling in the Whirlpool: the distance to M 51 clarified by Cepheids and the Type IIP SN 2005cs

Despite being one of the best-known galaxies, the distance to the Whirlpool Galaxy, M 51, is still debated. Current estimates range from 6.02 to 9.09 Mpc, and different methods yield discrepant results. No Cepheid distance has been published for M 51 to date. We aim to estimate a more reliable distance to M 51 through two independent methods: Cepheid variables and their period-luminosity relation, and an augmented version of the expanding photosphere method (EPM) on the Type IIP SN 2005cs. For the Cepheid variables, we analyse a recently published HST catalogue of stars in M 51. By applying light curve and colour-magnitude diagram-based filtering, we select a high-quality sample of M 51 Cepheids to estimate the distance through the period-luminosity relation. For SN 2005cs, an emulator-based spectral fitting technique is applied, which allows for the fast and reliable estimation of physical parameters of the supernova atmosphere. We augment the established framework of EPM with these spectral models to obtain a precise distance to M 51. The two resulting distance estimates are D_Cep = 7.59 +/- 0.30 Mpc and D_2005cs = 7.34 +/- 0.39 Mpc using the Cepheid period-luminosity relation and the spectral modelling of SN 2005cs respectively. This is the first published Cepheid distance for this galaxy. Given that these two estimates are completely independent, one may combine them, which yields D_M51 = 7.50 +/- 0.24 Mpc (3.2% uncertainty). Our distance estimates are in agreement with most of the results obtained previously for M 51, while being more precise than the earlier counterparts. They are however significantly lower than the TRGB estimates, which are often adopted for the distance to this galaxy. The results highlight the importance of direct cross-checks between independent distance estimates for quantifying systematic uncertainties.

astro-ph.GA

HOLISMOKES -- IX. Neural network inference of strong-lens parameters and uncertainties from ground-based images

Modeling of strong gravitational lenses is a necessity for further applications in astrophysics and cosmology. Especially with the large number of detections in current and upcoming surveys such as the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), it is timely to investigate in automated and fast analysis techniques beyond the traditional and time consuming Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling methods. Building upon our convolutional neural network (CNN) presented in Schuldt et al. (2021b), we present here another CNN, specifically a residual neural network (ResNet), that predicts the five mass parameters of a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid (SIE) profile (lens center $x$ and $y$, ellipticity $e_x$ and $e_y$, Einstein radius $θ_E$) and the external shear ($γ_{ext,1}$, $γ_{ext,2}$) from ground-based imaging data. In contrast to our CNN, this ResNet further predicts a 1$σ$ uncertainty for each parameter. To train our network, we use our improved pipeline from Schuldt et al. (2021b) to simulate lens images using real images of galaxies from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (HSC) and from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field as lens galaxies and background sources, respectively. We find overall very good recoveries for the SIE parameters, while differences remain in predicting the external shear. From our tests, most likely the low image resolution is the limiting factor for predicting the external shear. Given the run time of milli-seconds per system, our network is perfectly suited to predict the next appearing image and time delays of lensed transients in time. Therefore, we also present the performance of the network on these quantities in comparison to our simulations. Our ResNet is able to predict the SIE and shear parameter values in fractions of a second on a single CPU such that we are able to process efficiently the huge amount of expected galaxy-scale lenses in the near future.

astro-ph.IM

HOLISMOKES -- X. Comparison between neural network and semi-automated traditional modeling of strong lenses

Modeling of strongly gravitationally lensed galaxies is often required in order to use them as astrophysical or cosmological probes. With current and upcoming wide-field imaging surveys, the number of detected lenses is increasing significantly such that automated and fast modeling procedures for ground-based data are urgently needed. This is especially pertinent to short-lived lensed transients in order to plan follow-up observations. Therefore, we present in a companion paper (submitted) a neural network predicting the parameter values with corresponding uncertainties of a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid (SIE) mass profile with external shear. In this work, we present a newly-developed pipeline glee_auto.py to model consistently any galaxy-scale lensing system. In contrast to previous automated modeling pipelines that require high-resolution images, glee_auto.py is optimized for ground-based images such as those from the Hyper-Suprime-Cam (HSC) or the upcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. We further present glee_tools.py, a flexible automation code for individual modeling that has no direct decisions and assumptions implemented. Both pipelines, in addition to our modeling network, minimize the user input time drastically and thus are important for future modeling efforts. We apply the network to 31 real galaxy-scale lenses of HSC and compare the results to the traditional models. In the direct comparison, we find a very good match for the Einstein radius especially for systems with $θ_E \gtrsim 2$". The lens mass center and ellipticity show reasonable agreement. The main discrepancies are on the external shear as expected from our tests on mock systems. In general, our study demonstrates that neural networks are a viable and ultra fast approach for measuring the lens-galaxy masses from ground-based data in the upcoming era with $\sim10^5$ lenses expected.

astro-ph.CO

On the fate of the secondary white dwarf in double-degenerate double-detonation Type Ia supernovae

The progenitor systems and explosion mechanism of Type Ia supernovae are still unknown. Currently favoured progenitors include double-degenerate systems consisting of two carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with thin helium shells. In the double-detonation scenario, violent accretion leads to a helium detonation on the more massive primary white dwarf that turns into a carbon detonation in its core and explodes it. We investigate the fate of the secondary white dwarf, focusing on changes of the ejecta and observables of the explosion if the secondary explodes as well rather than survives. We simulate a binary system of a $1.05\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ and a $0.7\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ carbon-oxygen white dwarf with $0.03\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ helium shells each. We follow the system self-consistently from inspiral to ignition, through the explosion, to synthetic observables. We confirm that the primary white dwarf explodes self-consistently. The helium detonation around the secondary white dwarf, however, fails to ignite a carbon detonation. We restart the simulation igniting the carbon detonation in the secondary white dwarf by hand and compare the ejecta and observables of both explosions. We find that the outer ejecta at $v~>~15\,000$\,km\,s$^{-1}$ are indistinguishable. Light curves and spectra are very similar until $\sim~40\,\mathrm{d}$ after explosion and the ejecta are much more spherical than violent merger models. The inner ejecta differ significantly slowing down the decline rate of the bolometric light curve after maximum of the model with a secondary explosion by $\sim20$ per cent. We expect future synthetic 3D nebular spectra to confirm or rule out either model.

astro-ph.SR

Uniform Recalibration of Common Spectrophotometry Standard Stars onto the CALSPEC System using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph

We calibrate spectrophotometric optical spectra of 32 stars commonly used as standard stars, referenced to 14 stars already on the HST-based CALSPEC flux system. Observations of CALSPEC and non-CALSPEC stars were obtained with the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph over the wavelength range 3300 A to 9400 A as calibration for the Nearby Supernova Factory cosmology experiment. In total, this analysis used 4289 standard-star spectra taken on photometric nights. As a modern cosmology analysis, all pre-submission methodological decisions were made with the flux scale and external comparison results blinded. The large number of spectra per star allows us to treat the wavelength-by-wavelength calibration for all nights simultaneously with a Bayesian hierarchical model, thereby enabling a consistent treatment of the Type Ia supernova cosmology analysis and the calibration on which it critically relies. We determine the typical per-observation repeatability (median 14 mmag for exposures >~ 5 s), the Maunakea atmospheric transmission distribution (median dispersion of 7 mmag with uncertainty 1 mmag), and the scatter internal to our CALSPEC reference stars (median of 8 mmag). We also check our standards against literature filter photometry, finding generally good agreement over the full 12-magnitude range. Overall, the mean of our system is calibrated to the mean of CALSPEC at the level of ~ 3 mmag. With our large number of observations, careful crosschecks, and 14 reference stars, our results are the best calibration yet achieved with an integral-field spectrograph, and among the best calibrated surveys.

astro-ph.IM