A Generalized {ital K} Correction for Type Ia Supernovae: Comparing {ital R}-band Photometry Beyond {ital z=9.2} with B,V, and {ital R}-band Nearby Photometry

Journal Article · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995 · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

OSTI ID:938412

Kim, Alex; Goodbar, Ariel; Perlmutter, Saul

Photometric measurements show that, as a group, nearby Type Ia supernovae follow similar light curves and reach similar peak magnitudes (Branch & Tammann 1992). Thus, these supernovae may serve as standard candles or calibrated candles at cosmological distances. Magnitudes of local and distant supernovae, both in the same filter band, are compared using a K correction to account for the different spectral regions incident on that filter. A generalized approach compares magnitudes in different bands for the nearby and distant supernovae, bands that are selected to give sensitivity in corresponding regions of the unredshifted and redshifted spectra. Thus, R magnitudes for supernovae at z {approx} 0.5 are compared with B magnitudes of local supernovae. We compute these generalized K corrections over a range of redshifts and bandpass pairs and discuss their advantages over the traditional single-band K correction. In particular, errors near maximum light can be kept below 0.05 mag out to at least z = 0.6, whereas the traditional K correction is less accurate and can be difficult to determine beyond z > 0.2.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Physics Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 938412
• Report Number(s): LBL-38033
• Journal Information: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Journal Name: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Journal Issue: 720 Vol. 108; ISSN 0004-6280; ISSN PASPAU
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
PHOTOMETRY
SENSITIVITY
SPECTRA
SUPERNOVAE