Measurements of Faint Supernovae
Abstract
We summarize the current status of cosmological measurements using SNe Ia. Searches to an average depth of z~0.5 have found approximately 100 SNe Ia to date, and measurements of their light curves and peak magnitudes find these objects to be about 0.25mag fainter than predictions for an empty universe. These measurements imply low values for Omega_M and a positive cosmological constant, with high statistical significance. Searches out to z~1.0-1.2 for SNe Ia (peak magnitudes of I~24.5) will greatly aid in confirming this result, or demonstrate the existence of systematic errors. Multi-epoch spectra of SNe Ia at z~0.5 are needed to constrain possible evolutionary effects. I band searches should be able to find SNe Ia out to z~2. We discuss some simulations of deep searches and discovery statistics at several redshifts.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9909088,
title = {Measurements of Faint Supernovae},
author = {Robert A. Schommer and N. B. Suntzeff and R. C. Smith},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9909088},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
7 pages, 6 figures, delivered at the Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes sponsored by Lund University, June 1 & 2, 1999