KECK OBSERVATIONS OF THE YOUNG METAL-POOR HOST GALAXY OF THE SUPER-CHANDRASEKHAR-MASS TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA SN 2007if

Journal Article · Fri May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/733/1/3· OSTI ID:21576819

Childress, M; Aldering, G; Aragon, C; Bailey, S; Fakhouri, H K; Hsiao, E Y; Loken, S ^[1]; Antilogus, P; Bongard, S; Canto, A; Pain, R ^[2]; Baltay, C ^[3]; Buton, C; Kerschhaggl, M; Kowalski, M; Paech, K ^[4]; Chotard, N; Copin, Y; Gangler, E ^[5]; Nugent, P ^[6]

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1. Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
2. Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et des Hautes Energies, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Universite Paris Diderot Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
3. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06250-8121 (United States)
4. Physikalisches Institut, Universitaet Bonn, Nussallee 12, 53115 Bonn (Germany)
5. Universite de Lyon, 69622, Lyon, Universite de Lyon 1, Villeurbanne (France)
6. Computational Cosmology Center, Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road MS 50B-4206, Berkeley, CA 94611 (United States)

We present Keck LRIS spectroscopy and g-band photometry of the metal-poor, low-luminosity host galaxy of the super-Chandrasekhar-mass Type Ia supernova SN 2007if. Deep imaging of the host reveals its apparent magnitude to be m{sub g} = 23.15 {+-} 0.06, which at the spectroscopically measured redshift of z{sub helio} = 0.07450 {+-} 0.00015 corresponds to an absolute magnitude of M{sub g} = -14.45 {+-} 0.06. Galaxy g - r color constrains the mass-to-light ratio, giving a host stellar mass estimate of log(M{sub *}/M{sub sun}) = 7.32 {+-} 0.17. Balmer absorption in the stellar continuum, along with the strength of the 4000 A break, constrains the age of the dominant starburst in the galaxy to be t{sub burst} = 123{sup +165}{sub -77} Myr, corresponding to a main-sequence turnoff mass of M/M{sub sun} = 4.6{sup +2.6}{sub -1.4}. Using the R{sub 23} method of calculating metallicity from the fluxes of strong emission lines, we determine the host oxygen abundance to be 12 + log(O/H){sub KK04} = 8.01 {+-} 0.09, significantly lower than any previously reported spectroscopically measured Type Ia supernova host galaxy metallicity. Our data show that SN 2007if is very likely to have originated from a young, metal-poor progenitor.

• OSTI ID: 21576819
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 733, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/733/1/3; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
GALAXIES
METALS
SUPERNOVAE
BINARY STARS
ELEMENTS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
STARS
VARIABLE STARS