The Extinction Properties of and Distance to the Highly Reddened Type IA Supernova 2012cu

Journal Article · Mon Feb 20 04:00:00 EST 2017 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/157· OSTI ID:22869344

Huang, X.; Raha, Z. ^[1]; Aldering, G.; Bailey, S.; Boone, K.; Fagrelius, P.; Fakhouri, H. K.; Hayden, B. ^[2]; Antilogus, P.; Bongard, S. ^[3]; Baltay, C. ^[4]; Barbary, K. ^[5]; Baugh, D.; Chen, J. ^[6]; Buton, C.; Chotard, N.; Copin, Y. ^[7]; Feindt, U. ^[8]; Fouchez, D. ^[9]; Gangler, E. ^[10] ; others, and

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117-1080 (United States)
2. Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
3. Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et des Hautes Énergies, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Université Paris Diderot Paris 7, CNRS-IN2P3, 4 place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
4. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06250-8121 (United States)
5. Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, 366 LeConte Hall MC 7300, Berkeley, CA 94720-7300 (United States)
6. Tsinghua Center for Astrophysics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)
7. CNRS/IN2P3, Institut de Physique Nucleaire de Lyon, Universite de Lyon, Universite de Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, F-69622, Lyon (France)
8. The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, AlbaNova, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
9. Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS/IN2P3, 163 avenue de Luminy—Case 902-13288 Marseille Cedex 09 (France)
10. Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, BP 10448, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand (France)

Correcting Type Ia Supernova brightnesses for extinction by dust has proven to be a vexing problem. Here we study the dust foreground to the highly reddened SN 2012cu, which is projected onto a dust lane in the galaxy NGC 4772. The analysis is based on multi-epoch, spectrophotometric observations spanning from 3300–9200 Å, obtained by the Nearby Supernova Factory. Phase-matched comparison of the spectroscopically twinned SN 2012cu and SN 2011fe across 10 epochs results in the best-fit color excess of (E(B−V), RMS) = (1.00, 0.03) and total-to-selective extinction ratio of (R {sub V}, RMS) = (2.95, 0.08) toward SN 2012cu within its host galaxy. We further identify several diffuse interstellar bands and compare the 5780 Å band with the dust-to-band ratio for the Milky Way (MW). Overall, we find the foreground dust-extinction properties for SN 2012cu to be consistent with those of the MW. Furthermore, we find no evidence for significant time variation in any of these extinction tracers. We also compare the dust extinction curve models of Cardelli et al., O’Donnell, and Fitzpatrick, and find the predictions of Fitzpatrick fit SN 2012cu the best. Finally, the distance to NGC4772, the host of SN 2012cu, at a redshift of z = 0.0035, often assigned to the Virgo Southern Extension, is determined to be 16.6 ± 1.1 Mpc. We compare this result with distance measurements in the literature.

• OSTI ID: 22869344
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 836; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BRIGHTNESS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COSMIC DUST
COSMOLOGY
MILKY WAY
RED SHIFT
SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
TYPE I SUPERNOVAE