The release of type IA supernova data could hold the key to universe’s history

The unique dataset of the IA supernova type released today could change the way cosmologists measure the expansion history of the universe.

Dr. Mathew Smith and Dr. Georgios Dimitriadis of Lancaster University are both members of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a square sky astronomical survey using a new camera mounted on the Samuel Oskin telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. This work is featured in Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Type IA supernova is a dramatic explosion of a white dwarf star at the end of life. Cosmologists use them to probe distances across the universe by comparing their fluxes.

“This release provides a game-changing dataset for supernova cosmology. Towards new discoveries in both the expansion of the universe and fundamental physics,” said Lancaster Astrophysicist Dr. Smith, co-leader of the ZTF SN IA DR2 release. Open the door to the supernova.”

This is the first time an astrophysicists have access to such a large, homogeneous data set. Type IA supernovae are rare and occur approximately once per 1000 years in typical galaxies, but the depth of ZTF and research strategies allow researchers to detect nearly four per night. In just two and a half years, ZTF has doubled the number of Type IA supernovas available in cosmology acquired over the past 30 years to almost 3,000.

Dr. Mickael Rigault, Head of ZTF Space Science and Science Working Group, Institut des Deux Infinis de Lyon (CNRS/Claude Bernard University), said, “Over the past five years, a group of 30 experts from around the world gather, compiled, edited and edited.” , we have put these data together and analyzed them. We have added them to the results we have already published.”

Mounted on the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope at the Palomar Observatory, the ZTF camera scans the entire north sky daily with three optical bands, reaching a million times more firing than a dim star visible to the naked eye. This sensitivity allows ZTF to detect almost any supernova within 1.5 billion light-years of Earth.

“Thanks to its unique ability to quickly and deeply scan the sky of ZTFs, it has achieved multiple supernovae within days or hours of an explosion, and is now a new one,” said Professor Kate Maguire of Trinity College Dublin. It provided constraints: how they end their lives.”

The accelerated expansion of the universe, which won a Nobel Prize in 2011, was discovered in the late 90s using around 100 of these supernovae. Since then, cosmologists have been investigating the reasons for this acceleration caused by dark energy, which plays the role of antigravity throughout the universe.

Co-authors of Ariel Goobar, director of Oskar Klein Center in Stockholm, one of ZTF’s founding bodies, are members of the team that discovered the accelerated expansion of space in 1998, saying, “In the end, the purpose is to , to deal with it. One of the biggest questions of our era in basic physics and cosmology, namely, do most of the universe need ZTF Supernova data?

One important result of these studies is that IA supernova types differ essentially as a function of the host environment. This could change the way in which the universe is measured, and could have significant consequences for current deviations observed in standard models of cosmology.

“This large, uniform dataset allows us to explore type IA supernovas with unprecedented accuracy and accuracy. This refines the use of IA supernovas in cosmology and exposes current deviations in cosmology. It’s an important step to assessing it, due to new fundamental physics or unknown problems in the way we derive distances.”