Aims. We present photometric properties and distance measurements of 252high redshift Type Ia supernovae (0.15 < z < 1.1) discovered during the first three years of the Supernova Legacy Survey ...(SNLS). These events were detected and their multi-colour light curves measured using the MegaPrime/MegaCam instrument at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), by repeatedly imaging four one-square degree fields in four bands. Follow-up spectroscopy was performed at the VLT, Gemini and Keck telescopes to confirm the nature of the supernovae and to measure their redshifts. Methods. Systematic uncertainties arising from light curve modeling are studied, making use of two techniques to derive the peak magnitude, shape and colour of the supernovae, and taking advantage of a precise calibration of the SNLS fields. Results. A flat ΛCDM cosmological fit to 231SNLS high redshift type Ia supernovae alone gives ΩM = 0.211 ± 0.034(stat) ± 0.069(sys). The dominant systematic uncertainty comes from uncertainties in the photometric calibration. Systematic uncertainties from light curve fitters come next with a total contribution of ± 0.026 on ΩM. No clear evidence is found for a possible evolution of the slope (β) of the colour-luminosity relation with redshift.
Context. The gamma-ray bursts hosts (GRBHs) are excellent targets to study the extinction properties of dust and its effects on the global emission of distant galaxies. The dust extinction curve is ...measured along the GRB afterglow line of sight and the analysis of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the host galaxy gives access to the global dust attenuation of the stellar light. Aims. In this pilot study we gather information on dust extinction in GRBHs to compare the properties of the extinction curve to those of the dust obscuration affecting the total stellar light of the host galaxy. Assuming the extinction curve to be representative of the dust properties, we aim to investigate which dust-stars geometries and local dust distribution in the inter stellar medium (ISM) can reproduce the observed attenuation curve. Methods. We selected a sample of 30 GRBs for which the extinction curve along the GRB afterglow line-of-sight (l.o.s.) is measured in the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) up to optical and we analysed the properties of the extinction curve as a function of the host galaxy properties. From these 30 GRBs, we selected seven GRBHs with a good rest-frame UV to near-infrared (NIR) spectral coverage for the host. The attenuation curve was derived by fitting the SEDs of the GRBH sample with the CIGALE SED fitting code. Different star formation histories (SFH) were studied to recover the star formation rates (SFR) derived using Hα luminosities. Implications for the dust-stars geometries in the ISM are inferred by a comparison with radiative transfer simulations. Results. The most extinguished GRBs are preferentially found in the more massive hosts and the UV bump is preferentially found in the most extinguished GRB l.o.s. Five out of seven hosts are best fitted with a recent burst of star formation, leading to lower stellar mass estimates than previously found. The average attenuation in the host galaxies is about 70% of the amount of extinction along the GRB l.o.s. We find a great variety in the derived attenuation curves of GRBHs, the UV slope can be similar, flatter or even steeper than the extinction curve slope. Half of the attenuation curves are consistent with the Calzetti attenuation law and there is evidence of a UV bump in only one GRBH. We find that the flatter (steeper) attenuation curves are found in galaxies with the highest (lowest) SFR and stellar masses. The comparison of our results with radiative transfer simulations leads to a uniform distribution of dust and stars in a very clumpy ISM for half the GRBHs and various dust-stars geometries for the second half of the sample.
We present optical, X-ray and gamma-ray observations of GRB 111209A, at a redshift of z = 0.677. We show that this event was active in its prompt phase for about 25000 seconds, making it the longest ...burst ever observed. This rare event could have been detected up to z ~ 1.4. Compared to other long GRBs, GRB 111209A is a clear outlier in the energy-fluence and duration plane. The high-energy prompt emission shows no sign of a strong black body component, as expected if the event was caused by a tidal disruption event or a supernova shock breakout. Given the extreme longevity of this event, and a lack of a supernova signature, we propose that GRB 111209A is a relatively rare stellar collapse of a low metallicity blue super giant star. Only this progenitor can supply mass to the central engine over a duration of thousands of seconds. Hence, GRB 111209A could have more in common with population III stellar explosions, rather than normal long gamma ray bursts.
Abstract
We report the detection of the CO(3-2) emission line from the host galaxy of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 080207 at z = 2.086. This is the first detection of molecular gas in emission from a GRB ...host galaxy beyond redshift 1. We find this galaxy to be rich in molecular gas with a mass of $1.1 \times 10^{11}\,\rm M_{{\odot }}$ assuming αCO = 4.36 $\rm M_{{\odot }}\,(\rm K\,km\,s^{-1}\,pc^2)^{-1}$. The molecular gas mass fraction of the galaxy is ∼0.5, typical of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with similar stellar masses and redshifts. With an $\rm SFR_{FIR}$ of 260 $\rm M_{{\odot }}\,yr^{-1}$, we measure a molecular gas depletion time-scale of 0.43 Gyr, near the peak of the depletion time-scale distribution of SFGs at similar redshifts. Our findings are therefore in contradiction with the proposed molecular gas deficiency in GRB host galaxies. We argue that the reported molecular gas deficiency for GRB hosts could be the artefact of improper comparisons or neglecting the effect of the typical low metallicities of GRB hosts on the CO-to-molecular-gas conversion factor. We also compare the kinematics of the CO(3-2) emission line to that of the H α emission line from the host galaxy. We find the H α emission to have contributions from two separate components, a narrow and a broad one. The narrow component matches the CO emission well in velocity space. The broad component, with a full width at half-maximum of ∼1100 $\rm km\,s^{-1}$, is separated by +390 $\rm km\,s^{-1}$ in velocity space from the narrow component. We speculate this broad component to be associated with a powerful outflow in the host galaxy or in an interacting system.
Abstract
The coming era of large photometric wide-field surveys will increase the detection rate of supernovae by orders of magnitude. Such numbers will restrict spectroscopic follow-up in the vast ...majority of cases, and hence new methods based solely on photometric data must be developed. Here, we construct a complete Hubble diagram of Type II supernovae (SNe II) combining data from three different samples: the Carnegie Supernova Project-I, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II SN, and the Supernova Legacy Survey. Applying the Photometric Color Method (PCM) to 73 SNe II with a redshift range of 0.01–0.5 and with no spectral information, we derive an intrinsic dispersion of 0.35 mag. A comparison with the Standard Candle Method (SCM) using 61 SNe II is also performed and an intrinsic dispersion in the Hubble diagram of 0.27 mag, i.e., 13% in distance uncertainties, is derived. Due to the lack of good statistics at higher redshifts for both methods, only weak constraints on the cosmological parameters are obtained. However, assuming a flat universe and using the PCM, we derive the universe’s matter density:
providing a new independent evidence for dark energy at the level of two sigma.
We present SiFTO, a new empirical method for modeling Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) light curves by manipulating a spectral template. We make use of high-redshift SN data when training the model, ...allowing us to extend it bluer than rest-frame U. This increases the utility of our high-redshift SN observations by allowing us to use more of the available data. We find that when the shape of the light curve is described using a stretch prescription, applying the same stretch at all wavelengths is not an adequate description. SiFTO therefore uses a generalization of stretch which applies different stretch factors as a function of both the wavelength of the observed filter and the stretch in the rest-frame B band. We compare SiFTO to other published light-curve models by applying them to the same set of SN photometry, and demonstrate that SiFTO and SALT2 perform better than the alternatives when judged by the scatter around the best-fit luminosity distance relationship. We further demonstrate that when SiFTO and SALT2 are trained on the same data set the cosmological results agree.
Abstract Our aim was to find out whether pain was better controlled if morphine or tramadol was injected intra-articularly after arthrocentesis with Ringer's lactate in patients with painful ...temporomandibular joints (TMJ). This placebo-controlled, double-blind study involved 30 patients who had not responded to conservative treatment and who were divided randomly into 3 groups of 10 patients each. All patients had arthrocentesis, and the drugs were given as intra-articular injections immediately after the procedure. One group was give 5% Ringer's lactate 1 ml, the second morphine 1 mg, and the third tramadol 50 mg. Visual analogue scales (VAS) for pain were recorded at maximum mouth opening and at rest before intra-articular injection and after 15 and 30 min; at 1, 2, 3, 8, 12, 24, 36 and 48 h; and at 1, 3, and 6 monthly follow-up. The mean (SD) VAS decreased from 6.90 (1.45) to 2.6 (2.5) in the control group, from 7.30 (1.64) to 1.20 (0.79) in the morphine group ( p = 0.005), and from 7.10 (1.73) to 1.50 (1.78) in the tramadol group ( p = 0.005). We conclude that morphine given by intra-articular injection after arthrocentesis gives a significant, sustained (6 months) improvement in pain relief compared with simple arthrocentesis alone. The effect was similar with tramadol except that it was shorter lived.
Precision cosmology with Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) makes use of the fact that SN Ia luminosities depend on their light-curve shapes and colours. Using Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) and other data, ...we show that there is an additional dependence on the global characteristics of their host galaxies: events of the same light-curve shape and colour are, on average, 0.08 mag (≃4.0σ) brighter in massive host galaxies (presumably metal-rich) and galaxies with low specific star formation rates (sSFR). These trends do not depend on any assumed cosmological model, and are independent of the SN light-curve width: both fast and slow-declining events show the same trends. SNe Ia in galaxies with a low sSFR also have a smaller slope (‘β’) between their luminosities and colours with ∼2.7σ significance, and a smaller scatter on SN Ia Hubble diagrams (at 95 per cent confidence), though the significance of these effects is dependent on the reddest SNe. SN Ia colours are similar between low-mass and high-mass hosts, leading us to interpret their luminosity differences as an intrinsic property of the SNe and not of some external factor such as dust. If the host stellar mass is interpreted as a metallicity indicator using galaxy mass–metallicity relations, the luminosity trends are in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions. We show that the average stellar mass, and therefore the average metallicity, of our SN Ia host galaxies decreases with redshift. The SN Ia luminosity differences consequently introduce a systematic error in cosmological analyses, comparable to the current statistical uncertainties on parameters such as w, the equation of state of dark energy. We show that the use of two SN Ia absolute magnitudes, one for events in high-mass (metal-rich) galaxies and the other for events in low-mass (metal-poor) galaxies, adequately corrects for the differences. Cosmological fits incorporating these terms give a significant reduction in χ2 (3.8σ–4.5σ); linear corrections based on host parameters do not perform as well. We conclude that all future SN Ia cosmological analyses should use a correction of this (or similar) form to control demographic shifts in the underlying galaxy population.
We present observational constraints on the nature of dark energy using the Supernova Legacy Survey three-year sample (SNLS3) of Guy et al. and Conley et al. We use the 472 Type Ia supernovae (SNe ...Ia) in this sample, accounting for recently discovered correlations between SN Ia luminosity and host galaxy properties, and include the effects of all identified systematic uncertainties directly in the cosmological fits. Combining the SNLS3 data with the full WMAP7 power spectrum, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey luminous red galaxy power spectrum, and a prior on the Hubble constant H 0 from SHOES, in a flat universe we find Delta *W m = 0.269 ? 0.015 and w = --1.061+0.069 -- 0.068 (where the uncertainties include all statistical and SN Ia systematic errors)--a 6.5% measure of the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w. The statistical and systematic uncertainties are approximately equal, with the systematic uncertainties dominated by the photometric calibration of the SN Ia fluxes--without these calibration effects, systematics contribute only a ~2% error in w. When relaxing the assumption of flatness, we find Delta *W m = 0.271 ? 0.015, Delta *W k = --0.002 ? 0.006, and w = --1.069+0.091 -- 0.092. Parameterizing the time evolution of w as w(a) = w 0 + wa (1 -- a) gives w 0 = --0.905 ? 0.196, wa = --0.984+1.094 -- 1.097 in a flat universe. All of our results are consistent with a flat, w = --1 universe. The size of the SNLS3 sample allows various tests to be performed with the SNe segregated according to their light curve and host galaxy properties. We find that the cosmological constraints derived from these different subsamples are consistent. There is evidence that the coefficient, Delta *b, relating SN Ia luminosity and color, varies with host parameters at >4 Delta *s significance (in addition to the known SN luminosity-host relation); however, this has only a small effect on the cosmological results and is currently a subdominant systematic.