Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

We present the recalculation of the rates of supernovae in local, low redshift (z ≤ 0.1) from the Nearby Galaxies Supernovae Search Project (Strolger, 2003) using an improved baseline designed to maximize SNe yield. Approximately 15 additional SNe of various types and ages have been discovered from the dataset and added to the 42 SNe already detected. This sample is sufficient to obtain an accurate rate of SNe in the local universe. The rates are weighted by volume, total light, and host galaxy type. Further spectroscopic data for the progenitor galaxies of each event will allow us to compare the rates using various galaxy properties. Contributions included an estimate of the precision and depth of the survey with false supernovae, and estimated luminosity function using literature estimates, and determining the control times for the survey to correct for the cadence and sensitivity of the survey. We present a detailed description of the resurveying of the NGSS dataset, the rate calculations, and the preliminary results. We obtain a B-band rate of 0.220century−1[1010L⊙(B)]−1. This roughly corresponds to 1 SNe Ia every 400 - 500 years in a galaxy like the Milky Way. Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Extragalactic, Type Ia Supernova, Lo- cal Galaxies

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Dr. Louis-Gregory Strolger

Disciplines

Physics

Download

Included in

Physics Commons

Share

COinS