THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE CLUSTER SUPERNOVA SURVEY. II. THE TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA RATE IN HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXY CLUSTERS

Journal Article · Fri Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/745/1/32· OSTI ID:22011995

Barbary, K; Amanullah, R; Fakhouri, H K; Goldhaber, G; Huang, X ^[1]; Aldering, G; Dawson, K S; Faccioli, L; Hsiao, E ^[2]; Brodwin, M ^[3]; Connolly, N ^[4]; Doi, M; Ihara, Y ^[5]; Eisenhardt, P ^[6]; Fadeyev, V ^[7]; Fruchter, A S ^[8]; Gilbank, D G ^[9]; Gladders, M D ^[10]; Goobar, A ^[11]; Hattori, T ^[12] ; others, and

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1. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
2. E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
4. Hamilton College Department of Physics, Clinton, NY 13323 (United States)
5. Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015 (Japan)
6. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
7. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 94064 (United States)
8. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
9. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University Of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 (Canada)
10. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
11. Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmo Particle Physics, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
12. Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A'ohaku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States)

We report a measurement of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate in galaxy clusters at 0.9 < z < 1.46 from the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey. This is the first cluster SN Ia rate measurement with detected z > 0.9 SNe. Finding 8 {+-} 1 cluster SNe Ia, we determine an SN Ia rate of 0.50{sup +0.23}{sub -0.19} (stat){sup +0.10}{sub -0.09} (sys) h{sup 2}{sub 70} SNuB (SNuB {identical_to} 10{sup -12} SNe L{sup -1}{sub Sun ,B} yr{sup -1}). In units of stellar mass, this translates to 0.36{sup +0.16}{sub -0.13} (stat){sup +0.07}{sub -0.06} (sys) h{sup 2}{sub 70} SNuM (SNuM {identical_to} 10{sup -12} SNe M{sup -1}{sub Sun} yr{sup -1}). This represents a factor of Almost-Equal-To 5 {+-} 2 increase over measurements of the cluster rate at z < 0.2. We parameterize the late-time SN Ia delay time distribution (DTD) with a power law: {Psi}(t){proportional_to}t{sup s} . Under the approximation of a single-burst cluster formation redshift of z{sub f} = 3, our rate measurement in combination with lower-redshift cluster SN Ia rates constrains s = -1.41{sup +0.47}{sub -0.40}, consistent with measurements of the DTD in the field. This measurement is generally consistent with expectations for the 'double degenerate' scenario and inconsistent with some models for the 'single degenerate' scenario predicting a steeper DTD at large delay times. We check for environmental dependence and the influence of younger stellar populations by calculating the rate specifically in cluster red-sequence galaxies and in morphologically early-type galaxies, finding results similar to the full cluster rate. Finally, the upper limit of one hostless cluster SN Ia detected in the survey implies that the fraction of stars in the intra-cluster medium is less than 0.47 (95% confidence), consistent with measurements at lower redshifts.

• OSTI ID: 22011995
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 745, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
APPROXIMATIONS
COSMOLOGY
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
RED SHIFT
SUPERNOVAE
TELESCOPES
TIME DELAY
WHITE DWARF STARS