Quantitative comparison between type la supernova spectra at low and high redshifts

Garavini, G.; Folatelli, G.; Nobili, S.; Aldering, G.; Amanullah, R.; Antilogus, P.; Astier, P.; Blanc, G.; Bronder, T.; Burns, M. S.; Conley, A.; Deustua, S. E.; Doi, M.; Fabbro, S.; Fadeyev, V.; Gibbons, R.; Goldhaber, G.; Goobar, A.; Groom, D. E.; Hook, I.; Howell, D. A.; Kashikawa, N.; Kim, A. G.; Kowalski, M.; Kuznetsova, N.; Lee, B. C.; Lidman, C.; Mendez, J.; Morokuma, T.; Motohara, K.; Nugent, P. E.; Pain, R.; Perlmutter, S.; Quimby, R.; Raux, J.; Regnault, N.; Ruiz-Lapuente, P.; Sainton, G.; Schahmaneche, K.; Smith, E.; Spadafora, A. L.; Stanishev, V.; Thomas, R. C.; Walton, N. A.; Wang, L.; Wood-Vasey, W. M.; Yasuda, N.

Quantitative comparison between type la supernova spectra at low and high redshifts

Date

2007-01-01

Authors

Abstract

We develop a method to measure the strength of the absorption features in type la supernova (SN la) spectra and use it to make a quantitative comparisons between the spectra of type la supernovae at low and high redshifts. In this case study, we apply the method to 12 high-redshift (0.212 ≤ z ≤ 0.912) SNe la observed by the Supernova Cosmology Project. Through measurements of the strengths of these features and of the blueshift of the absorption minimum in Ca II H&K, we show that the spectra of the high-redshift SNe Ia are quantitatively similar to spectra of nearby SNe la (z < 0.15). One supernova in our high redshift sample, SN 2002fd at z = 0.279, is found to have spectral characteristics that are associated with peculiar SN 1991T/SN 1999aa-like supernovae.