A MEASUREMENT OF THE RATE OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE IN GALAXY CLUSTERS FROM THE SDSS-II SUPERNOVA SURVEY

Journal Article · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/715/2/1021· OSTI ID:21450914

Dilday, Benjamin; Jha, Saurabh W ^[1]; Bassett, Bruce ^[2]; Becker, Andrew ^[3]; Bender, Ralf; Hopp, Ulrich ^[4]; Castander, Francisco ^[5]; Cinabro, David ^[6]; Frieman, Joshua A ^[7]; Galbany, LluIs; Miquel, Ramon ^[8]; Garnavich, Peter ^[9]; Goobar, Ariel ^[10]; Ihara, Yutaka ^[11]; Kessler, Richard ^[12]; Lampeitl, Hubert; Nichol, Robert C ^[13]; Marriner, John ^[14]; Molla, Mercedes ^[15]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States)
2. Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701 (South Africa)
3. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
4. Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, D-85748, Garching, Munich (Germany)
5. Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai (IEEC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain)
6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 (United States)
7. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
8. Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies, Barcelona (Spain)
9. University of Notre Dame, 225 Nieuwland Science, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670 (United States)
10. The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Albanova, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
11. Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo 2-21-1, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015 (Japan)
12. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, The University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
13. Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Mercantile House, Hampshire Terrace, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2EG (United Kingdom)
14. Center for Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia IL 60510 (United States)
15. Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnol ogicas, Madrid (Spain)

We present measurements of the Type Ia supernova (SN) rate in galaxy clusters based on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey. The cluster SN Ia rate is determined from 9 SN events in a set of 71 C4 clusters at z {<=} 0.17 and 27 SN events in 492 maxBCG clusters at 0.1 {<=} z {<=} 0.3. We find values for the cluster SN Ia rate of (0.37{sup +0.17+0.01} {sub -0.12-0.01}) SNur h {sup 2} and (0.55{sup +0.13+0.02} {sub -0.11-0.01}) SNur h {sup 2} (SNux = 10{sup -12} L {sup -1} {sub xsun} yr{sup -1}) in C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively, where the quoted errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The SN rate for early-type galaxies is found to be (0.31{sup +0.18+0.01} {sub -0.12-0.01}) SNur h {sup 2} and (0.49{sup +0.15+0.02} {sub -0.11-0.01}) SNur h {sup 2} in C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively. The SN rate for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCG) is found to be (2.04{sup +1.99+0.07} {sub -1.11-0.04}) SNur h {sup 2} and (0.36{sup +0.84+0.01} {sub -0.30-0.01}) SNur h {sup 2} in C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively. The ratio of the SN Ia rate in cluster early-type galaxies to that of the SN Ia rate in field early-type galaxies is 1.94{sup +1.31+0.043} {sub -0.91-0.015} and 3.02{sup +1.31+0.062} {sub -1.03-0.048}, for C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively. The SN rate in galaxy clusters as a function of redshift, which probes the late time SN Ia delay distribution, shows only weak dependence on redshift. Combining our current measurements with previous measurements, we fit the cluster SN Ia rate data to a linear function of redshift, and find r{sub L} = [(0.49{sup +0.15} {sub -0.14})+(0.91{sup +0.85} {sub -0.81}) x z] SNuB h {sup 2}. A comparison of the radial distribution of SNe in cluster to field early-type galaxies shows possible evidence for an enhancement of the SN rate in the cores of cluster early-type galaxies. With an observation of at most three hostless, intra-cluster SNe Ia, we estimate the fraction of cluster SNe that are hostless to be (9.4{sup +8.3} {sub -5.1})%.

• OSTI ID: 21450914
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 715, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/715/2/1021; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
RED SHIFT
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
SUPERNOVAE
BINARY STARS
DISTRIBUTION
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
STARS
VARIABLE STARS