Supernovae and Cosmology

• thumbnail sketch of supernovae
  taxonomy:
  • Type II, Ib/c: obseravation--SN 1987A; theory--core collapse
  • Type Ia: observation--SN 1994D, SN 2014J in M82; SNIa light curve movie
    theory: thermonuclear disruption of white dwarf--simulation
    
• SN Ia digital discovery via subtraction, e.g., here, here
• Supernova cosmology campaigns
  • Supernova Cosmology Project
  • High-z Supernova Search
• Type Ia SNe as Standardizable Candles
  • Examples: low-z SN 1994D, typical medium-z event, z=1.7 discovery in the Hubble Deep Field
  • light curves
  • raw and cooked light curves

Cosmic History from Supernova Beacons

• expectations: luminosity distance for different acceleration
• results: luminosity distance
  • Reiss et al (2007) results plotted, replotted, and replotted again
  • high-redshift SN Ia events
  • more technically: here and here; and their implications: High-z figure
  • recent data: SNLS team Hubble diagram, cosmo parameters (Sullivan et al 2011)
    Pan-STARRS Hubble diagram, Omega_Lambda vs Omega_matter (Rest et al 2013)
• Acceleration discovery is prizeworthy