Optimizing photometric selection criteria for Type Ia supernovae

E. Gjergo1,2, J. Duggan3, J. Cunningham3, S. Kuhlmann2, R. Biswas2, E. Kovacs2

1.Illinois

Institute of Technology, 2.Argonne National Laboratory, 3.Loyola University Chicago How to observe these quantities?
The next generation survey: The Dark Energy Survey (DES): international collaboration designed to gather substantial data to study Dark Energy A CCD camera will collect photometric data from a suitable portion of the sky One of the 4 probes DES uses is Type Ia supernovae

On the right: Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory in Chile, where the DES camera is mounted, and will operate starting from late 2012

Introduction: The expansion of the Universe is accelerating

The rate of expansion of the late Universe has been increasing. This revolutionary discovery was awarded with the 2011 Physics Nobel prize. If General Relativity is an accurate description of the cosmic scales, today 73% of the Universe content should possess negative pressure, this substance has been named dark energy.
On the right: (Top) An exaggerated plot of a(t),-see next section- the scale factor of the Universe relative to today. 9.5 billion years after the big bang, dark energy becomes predominant. (Bottom) Percentage change of the components in the Universe over time.

Optimize the selection criteria for Type Ia Supernovae Constrain parameters for CPL model (w0 and wa)

Research objective

Algorithms for the selection of Type Ia supernovae

Fit probability for Multicolor Light Curve Shapes (fpMLCS) (Jha et al. 2007) Fit probability for Spectral Adaptive Light-curve Templates (fpSALT) (Guy et al. 2007) As DES has not started collecting data yet, our study is based on simulations with SNANA (Kessler et al. 2009). DETF Figure of Merit
Below: Figure of Merit as advocated in the Dark Energy Task Force (DETF, Albrecht et al. 2006). Constrains the values of wa and w0, from the CPL model. We aim to find the best algorithm and signal to noise ratio cuts to select the purest sample of SNIa from the observed supernovae (once data becomes available results with simulations below)
fpMLCS SNR-10-5-5 fpSALT SNR-10-5-5 SNR-3-3-0

Why Type Ia Supernovae?

Supernovae (SNe): explosions of stars. Briefly become as bright as the host galaxy. Type Ia SNe are almost standard candles: their peak absolute brightness is standardizable (on the right). The flux of light coming from the SNe allows to determine their distance
Bernstein et al. (2011)

What affects the FoM:

2003 American Institute of Physics S-0031-9228-0304-030-4

Theory for Cosmology parameters

Expansion rate, from General Rela3vity (Friedman equa3ons)

Number of Supernovae Distance Modulus error Core Collapse contamination

Above: what is the probability that each supernova is Above: (red) Efficiency how many Type Ia were Type Ia? Histogram for simulations of Type Ia (white) selected with the algorithm? (black) Purity how many SNe selected to be Ia were really Ia? i.e. Contamination and core collapse (green).

a 2 2 = H 0 m a 3 + r a 4 + k a 2 + DE a 3(1+w) a

Below: The most important factors that can change the DETF Figure of Merit are demonstrated with an example. (SNR-3-3-0, fpMLCS >0.1) [DOF: degrees of freedom]

SN 1994D in outskirts of galaxy NGC 4526

What is w for the dark energy component? Is it time dependent or not?

(Redshift z in cosmology is a function of time)

We use the CPL parametrization (by Chevallier, Polarski and Linder) to model a time dependence of w:

z w(z) = w 0 + w a , where 1+ z

observed 1 = redshift
emitted p pressure
w = = density

z=

DES collects photometric data, but pure samples of Type Ia SNe are obtained only with spectroscopy. Photometry will give a contaminated sample. Measurable data (also extrapolated from theory) The distance modulus The redshift z = 5log10 (dL ) 5 = m M
dL is what is known from theory M is the absolute magnitude m is the apparent magnitude (observed) See on the left, theory section

SNR-3-3-0

On top: SNe Types are classified according to their chemical composition. In red we find Type Ia SNe.

SNR-10-5-5

Where a(t) is the scale factor: scales the distance of two objects over time [d(t)], relative to todays distance [d0] - i.e. d(t)=a(t) d0. Today a(0) = 1.
Each represents a density ratio for a component of the Universe, and is determined empirically m non-relativistic matter (0.27) r photons and relativistic neutrinos (10-4) k curvature of the Universe (0 for flat Universe) dark energy (0.73 today, cosmological constant if w=-1) H0 is Hubbles constant, 72 km s-1 Mpc-1, measured empirically

Credit: High-Z Supernova Search Team, HST, NASA

fpMLCS

fpSALT

Summary
We present the results of a study of selection criteria to photometrically identify Type Ia supernovae in a simulated mixed sample of Type Ia supernovae and core collapse supernovae. The simulated sample is a mockup of the upcoming Dark Energy Survey. Fits to the fpMLCS and fpSALT Type Ia supernova models are compared and used to help separate the Type Ia supernovae from the core collapse sample. The Dark Energy Task Force Figure of Merit (modified to include core collapse supernovae systematics) is used to discriminate among the various selection criteria. This study of varying selection cuts for Type Ia supernova candidates is the first to evaluate core collapse contamination using the Figure of Merit. Different factors that contribute to the Figure of Merit are detailed.

Poster creation date: April 09, 2012

For details on derivations, mathematical tools, or theory, please visit/contact: Homepage: http://www.hep.anl.gov/ac.eda.gjergo email: egjergo@iit.edu

SNR-3-3-0

Above: (left) Figure of Merit as a function of number of supernovae. Simulated sample of Ia only on both plots. The red plot has only DES SNIa as input, the black plot includes data known from previous experiments. (right) Average error on distance modulus is bigger in core collapse than for each simulated sample. Left: distance modulus vs. redshift, for Type Ia and core collapse. Type Ia trace very well the theoretical relationship between the two quantities. Below: Summary of results.