An Infrared Search for Extinguished Supernovae in Starburst Galaxies
- Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley and Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Mail Stop 50-232, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3905, University Station, Laramie, WY 82071 (United States)
- Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Mail Stop 50-348, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen (Germany)
- University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Yerkes Observatory, 373 West Geneva Street, Williams Bay, WI 53191 (United States)
IR and radio-band observations of heavily extinguished regions in starburst galaxies suggest a high supernova (SN) rate associated with such regions. Optically measured SN rates may therefore underestimate the total SN rate by factors of up to 10, as a result of the very high extinction ({ital A}{sub {ital B}}thinsp{approximately}thinsp10{endash}20 mag) to core-collapse SNe in starburst regions. The IR/radio SN rates come from a variety of indirect means, however, which suffer from model dependence and other problems. We describe a direct measurement of the SN rate from a regular patrol of starburst galaxies done with {ital K}{prime}-band imaging to minimize the effects of extinction. A collection of {ital K}{prime}-band measurements of core-collapse SNe near maximum light is presented. Such measurements (excluding 1987A) are not well reported in the literature. Results of a preliminary {ital K}{prime}-band search, using the MIRC camera at the Wyoming Infrared Observatory and an improved search strategy using the new ORCA optics, are described. A monthly patrol of a sample of {ital IRAS} bright (mostly starburst) galaxies within 25 Mpc should yield 1{endash}6 SNe yr{sup {minus}1}, corresponding to the range of estimated SN rates. Our initial MIRC search with low resolution (2&arcsec;2 pixels) failed to find extinguished SNe in the {ital IRAS} galaxies, limiting the SN rate outside the nucleus (at greater than 15{double_prime} radius) to less than 3.8 far-IR SN rate units (SNe per century per 10{sup 10} {ital L}{sub {circle_dot}} measured at 60 and 100 {mu}m, or FIRSRU) at 90{percent} confidence. The MIRC camera had insufficient resolution to search nuclear starburst regions, where starburst and SN activity is concentrated; therefore, we were unable to rigorously test the hypothesis of high SN rates in heavily obscured star-forming regions. We conclude that high-resolution nuclear SN searches in starburst galaxies with small fields are more productive than low-resolution, large-field searches, even for our sample of large (often several arcminutes) galaxies. With our ORCA high-resolution optics, we could limit the total SN rate to less than 1.3 FIRSRU at 90{percent} confidence in 3 years of observations, lower than most estimates. {copyright} {ital {copyright} 1999.} {ital The American Astronomical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 698821
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal, Vol. 118, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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