arXiv subjects

Young-Lo Kim

Publications and source records attributed to Young-Lo Kim.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

The prevalence and influence of circumstellar material around hydrogen-rich supernova progenitors

Narrow transient emission lines (flash-ionization features) in early supernova (SN) spectra trace the presence of circumstellar material (CSM) around the massive progenitor stars of core-collapse SNe. The lines disappear within days after the SN explosion, suggesting that this material is spatially confined, and originates from enhanced mass loss shortly (months to a few years) prior to explosion. We performed a systematic survey of H-rich (Type II) SNe discovered within less than two days from explosion during the first phase of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey (2018-2020), finding thirty events for which a first spectrum was obtained within $< 2$ days from explosion. The measured fraction of events showing flash ionisation features ($>36\%$ at $95\%$ confidence level) confirms that elevated mass loss in massive stars prior to SN explosion is common. We find that SNe II showing flash ionisation features are not significantly brighter, nor bluer, nor more slowly rising than those without. This implies that CSM interaction does not contribute significantly to their early continuum emission, and that the CSM is likely optically thin. We measured the persistence duration of flash ionisation emission and find that most SNe show flash features for $\approx 5 $ days. Rarer events, with persistence timescales $>10$ days, are brighter and rise longer, suggesting these may be intermediate between regular SNe II and strongly-interacting SNe IIn.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

A Uniform Type Ia Supernova Distance Ladder with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Absolute Calibration Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) Method

The current Cepheid-calibrated distance ladder measurement of $H_0$ is reported to be in tension with the values inferred from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), assuming standard cosmology. However, some tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) estimates report $H_0$ in better agreement with the CMB. Hence, it is critical to reduce systematic uncertainties in local measurements to understand the Hubble tension. In this paper, we propose a uniform distance ladder between the second and third rungs, combining SNe~Ia observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) with a TRGB calibration of their absolute luminosity. A large, volume-limited sample of both calibrator and Hubble flow SNe~Ia from the \emph{same} survey minimizes two of the largest sources of systematics: host-galaxy bias and non-uniform photometric calibration. We present results from a pilot study using existing TRGB distance to the host galaxy of ZTF SN~Ia SN 2021rhu (aka ZTF21abiuvdk) in NGC7814. Combining the ZTF calibrator with a volume-limited sample from the first data release of ZTF Hubble flow SNe~Ia, we infer $H_0 = 76.94 \pm 6.4\, {\rm km}\,{\rm s^{-1}}\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$, an $8.3 \%$ measurement. The error budget is dominated by the single object calibrating the SN~Ia luminosity in this pilot study. However, the ZTF sample includes already five other SNe~Ia within $\sim$ 20 Mpc for which TRGB distances can be obtained with HST. Finally, we present the prospects of building this distance ladder out to 80 Mpc with JWST observations of more than one hundred ZTF SNe~Ia.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Two c's in a pod: Cosmology independent measurement of the Type Ia supernova colour-luminosity relation with a sibling pair

Using Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observations, we identify a pair of "sibling" Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), i.e., hosted by the same galaxy at z = 0.0541. They exploded within 200 days from each other at a separation of $0.6^{"} $ corresponding to a projected distance of only 0.6 kpc. Performing SALT2 light curve fits to the gri ZTF photometry, we show that for these equally distant "standardizable candles", there is a difference of 2 magnitudes in their rest frame B-band peaks, and the fainter SN has a significantly red SALT2 colour $c = 0.57 \pm$ 0.04, while the stretch values $x_1$ of the two SNe are similar, suggesting that the fainter SN is attenuated by dust in the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. We use these measurements to infer the SALT2 colour standardization parameter, $β$ = 3.5 $\pm$ 0.3, independent of the underlying cosmology and Malmquist bias. Assuming the colour excess is entirely due to dust, the result differs by $2σ$ from the average Milky-Way total-to-selective extinction ratio, but is in good agreement with the colour-brightness corrections empirically derived from the most recent SN Ia Hubble-Lemaitre diagram fits. Thus we suggest that SN "siblings", which will increasingly be discovered in the coming years, can be used to probe the validity of the colour and lightcurve shape corrections using in SN Ia cosmology while avoiding important systematic effects in their inference from global multi-parameter fits to inhomogeneous data-sets, and also help constrain the role of interstellar dust in SN Ia cosmology.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. II. A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics

We present a public catalog of transients from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Bright Transient Survey (BTS), a magnitude-limited (m<19 mag in either the g or r filter) survey for extragalactic transients in the ZTF public stream. We introduce cuts on survey coverage, sky visibility around peak light, and other properties unconnected to the nature of the transient, and show that the resulting statistical sample is spectroscopically 97% complete at <18 mag, 93% complete at <18.5 mag, and 75% complete at <19 mag. We summarize the fundamental properties of this population, identifying distinct duration-luminosity correlations in a variety of supernova (SN) classes and associating the majority of fast optical transients with well-established spectroscopic SN types (primarily SN Ibn and II/IIb). We measure the Type Ia SN and core-collapse (CC) SN rates and luminosity functions, which show good consistency with recent work. About 7% of CC SNe explode in very low-luminosity galaxies (M_i > -16 mag), 10% in red-sequence galaxies, and 1% in massive ellipticals. We find no significant difference in the luminosity or color distributions between the host galaxies of Type II and Type Ib/c supernovae, suggesting that line-driven wind stripping does not play a major role in the loss of the hydrogen envelope from their progenitors. Future large-scale classification efforts with ZTF and other wide-area surveys will provide high-quality measurements of the rates, properties, and environments of all known types of optical transients and limits on the existence of theoretically predicted but as of yet unobserved explosions.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

A large fraction of hydrogen-rich supernova progenitors experience elevated mass loss shortly prior to explosion

Spectroscopic detection of narrow emission lines traces the presence of circumstellar mass distributions around massive stars exploding as core-collapse supernovae. Transient emission lines disappearing shortly after the supernova explosion suggest that the spatial extent of such material is compact, and hence imply an increased mass loss shortly prior to explosion. Here, we present a systematic survey for such transient emission lines (Flash Spectroscopy) among Type II supernovae detected in the first year of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey. We find that at least six out of ten events for which a spectrum was obtained within two days of estimated explosion time show evidence for such transient flash lines. Our measured flash event fraction ($>30\%$ at $95\%$ confidence level) indicates that elevated mass loss is a common process occurring in massive stars that are about to explode as supernovae.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Early-type Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae. II. Evidence for Luminosity Evolution in Supernova Cosmology

The most direct and strongest evidence for the presence of dark energy is provided by the measurement of galaxy distances using SNe Ia. This result is based on the assumption that the corrected brightness of SN Ia through the empirical standardization would not evolve with look-back time. Recent studies have shown, however, that the standardized brightness of SN Ia is correlated with host morphology, host mass, and local star formation rate (SFR), suggesting a possible correlation with stellar population property. To understand the origin of these correlations, we have continued our spectroscopic observations to cover most of the reported nearby early-type host galaxies. From high-quality (signal-to-noise ratio ~175) spectra, we obtained the most direct and reliable estimates of population age and metallicity for these host galaxies. We find a significant correlation between SN luminosity (after the standardization) and stellar population age at a 99.5 % confidence level. As such, this is the most direct and stringent test ever made for the luminosity evolution of SN Ia. Based on this result, we further show that the previously reported correlations with host morphology, host mass, and local SFR are most likely originated from the difference in population age. This indicates that the light-curve fitters used by the SNe Ia community are not quite capable of correcting for the population age effect, which would inevitably cause a serious systematic bias with look-back time. Notably, taken at face values, most of the Hubble residual used in the discovery of the dark energy appears to be affected by the luminosity evolution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Environmental Dependence of Type Ia Supernova Luminosities from the YONSEI Supernova Catalog

There is growing evidence for the dependence of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) luminosities on their environments. While the impact of this trend on estimating cosmological parameters is widely acknowledged, the origin of this correlation is still under debate. In order to explore this problem, we first construct the YONSEI (YOnsei Nearby Supernova Evolution Investigation) SN catalog. The catalog consists of 1231 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia over a wide redshift range (0.01 < z < 1.37) from various SN surveys and includes the light-curve fit data from two independent light-curve fitters of SALT2 and MLCS2k2. For a sample of 674 host galaxies, we use the stellar mass and the star formation rate data in Kim et al. (2018). We find that SNe Ia in low-mass and star-forming host galaxies are $0.062\pm0.009$ mag and $0.057\pm0.010$ mag fainter than those in high-mass and passive hosts, after light-curve corrections with SALT2 and MLCS2k2, respectively. When only local environments of SNe Ia (e.g., locally star-forming and locally passive) are considered, this luminosity difference increases to $0.081\pm0.018$ mag for SALT2 and $0.072\pm0.018$ mag for MLCS2k2. Considering the significant difference in the mean stellar population age between the two environments, this result suggests that the origin of environmental dependence is most likely the luminosity evolution of SNe Ia with redshift.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Environmental Dependence of Type Ia Supernova Luminosities from a Sample without a Local-Global Difference in Host Star Formation

It is now established that there is a dependence of the luminosity of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) on environment: SNe Ia in young, star-forming, metal-poor stellar populations appear fainter after light-curve shape corrections than those in older, passive, metal-rich environments. This is accounted for in cosmological studies using a global property of the SN host galaxy, typically the host galaxy stellar mass. However, recent low-redshift studies suggest that this effect manifests itself most strongly when using the local star-formation rate (SFR) at the SN location, rather than the global SFR or stellar mass of the host galaxy. At high-redshift, such local SFRs are difficult to determine; here, we show that an equivalent 'local' correction can be made by restricting the SN Ia sample in globally star-forming host galaxies to a low-mass host galaxy subset ($\le10^{10} M_{\odot}$). Comparing this sample of SNe Ia (in locally star-forming environments) to those in locally passive host galaxies, we find that SNe Ia in locally star-forming environments are $0.081\pm0.018$ mag fainter ($4.5σ$), consistent with the result reported by Rigault et al. (2015), but our conclusion is based on a sample ~5 times larger over a wider redshift range. This is a larger difference than when splitting the SN Ia sample based on global host galaxy SFR or host galaxy stellar mass. This method can be used in ongoing and future high-redshift SN surveys, where local SN Ia environments are difficult to determine.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Early-type Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae. I. Evidence for Downsizing

Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology provides the most direct evidence for the presence of dark energy. This result is based on the assumption that the look-back time evolution of SN Ia luminosity, after light-curve corrections, would be negligible. Recent studies show, however, that the Hubble residual (HR) of SN Ia is correlated with the mass and morphology of host galaxies, implying the possible dependence of SN Ia luminosity on host galaxy properties. In order to investigate this more directly, we have initiated spectroscopic survey for the early-type host galaxies, for which population age and metallicity can be more reliably determined from the absorption lines. As the first paper of the series, here we present the results from high signal-to-noise ratio (>100 per pixel) spectra for 27 nearby host galaxies in the southern hemisphere. For the first time in host galaxy studies, we find a significant (~3.9sigma) correlation between host galaxy mass (velocity dispersion) and population age, which is consistent with the "downsizing" trend among non-host early-type galaxies. This result is rather insensitive to the choice of population synthesis models. Since we find no correlation with metallicity, our result suggests that stellar population age is mainly responsible for the relation between host mass and HR. If confirmed, this would imply that the luminosity evolution plays a major role in the systematic uncertainties of SN Ia cosmology.

astro-ph.CO↗