Targeting Supernovae in Very High Redshift Galaxy Clusters with HST: Preliminary Results

Details Targeting Supernovae in Very High Redshift Galaxy Clusters with HST: Preliminary Results Targeting Supernovae in Very High Redshift Galaxy Clusters with HST: Preliminary Results

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...209.9001b&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #90.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, V

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

We demonstrate a novel approach to obtaining Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) at very high redshifts (z> 1) in dust-free environments. In a 219 orbit program (Perlmutter, PI), we have used the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and NICMOS on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to repeatedly observe a sample of 25 massive galaxy clusters at z> 1 to find and follow SNe. Clusters of galaxies are known to be dominated by nearly dust-free early type galaxies. SNe discovered in these galaxies are expected to have negligible dust extinction, the largest source of both statistical and systematic uncertainty in SNe derived distances. In addition, galaxy clusters contain a population of early type galaxies at a density much larger than that in the high redshift field, leading to a significantly higher rate of detection of SNe Ia in this well-understood host environment. The rolling nature of the search means we automatically follow field SNe, leading to a higher overall rate of SN discoveries compared to "blank field" surveys. The discovery rate we find is consistent with these expectations. Using pre-scheduled time on the Subaru, Keck, and VLT telescopes we have obtained either spectroscopic confirmations or host galaxy redshifts for most newly discovered candidates. This data set will significantly improve supernova constraints of dark energy both in terms of statistical uncertainty, and perhaps more importantly, of systematic uncertainty.
This work has been supported by the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, through contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 and in part by NASA through grants associated with HST-GO-10496.

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