The future of SN host galaxy studies

Welcome to the webpage of the “The future of SN host galaxy studies” workshop funded by a grant from the Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology Center (PITT-PACC).

Rationale

Supernovae (SNe) are one of the most prominent transient events in astronomy. SNe trigger new star formation and drive cosmic chemical evolution. Despite their importance, the progenitors of SNe are still not very well characterized. Studies of the host galaxies/local environments of SNe can provide constraints on their progenitor properties, and help us understand specific transient features in relation to their environment.

Type Ia SNe (SNe Ia) are found to explode in both early and late type galaxies, and their presence in the former constrains (at least a fraction of) their progenitors to be evolved systems. However, the exact range of ages from which progenitors explode, the delay time distribution, is not well constrained. Neither is its relation to progenitor metallicity. Indeed, a strong debate exists as to whether SNe Ia arise from accretion onto a single white dwarf (WD) star, or from the coalescence of two WDs. These questions are particularly pertinent given the use of SNe Ia in many other areas of astrophysics. Their use as primary high redshift distance indicators led to the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe, while SNe Ia are the main iron producers in the Universe, hence driving chemical evolution of galaxies. The continued use of SNe Ia in these distinct fields demands a more precise understanding of their progenitors and explosions mechanisms. Investigating how SN Ia properties relate to their host galaxy properties can help she light on the origin of these explosions.

In the context of stellar evolution, core-collapse SNe signal the death throes of massive stars. During the last decade, there have been detections of SN progenitors in the pre-explosion archival Hubble Space Telescope images. This is by far the most poweful way to directly constrain the SN progenitors, however, only a handful of SN progenitors have been directly detected. Alternatively, one may perform a statistical study to the environments of SNe to derive useful constraints on the progenitors. Many works in the literature have used imaging and spectroscopy of their host galaxies, in particular their closest environment, to characterize properties such as the age and metallicity of the stellar popullations, or the local star formation density. Those seminal works have been the base of Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) surveys of SN host galaxies like PISCO and AMUSING. These latter references surveys will be the basis for much of the discussion in this workshop.

Venue

The workshop will be held at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Univertity of Pittsburgh at Allen Hall.

Hotel:

We have arranged for a block of rooms at the Residence Inn by Marriott Pittsburgh University/Medical center, just a few blocks from the meeting location, from 01/21 to 01/23 (3 nights). Please, do not contact the hotel directly. Instead, please email Cindy Cercone at cmc138(at)pitt(dot)edu, she will make reservations and send you a confirmation number with the hotel, along with further travel details.

Getting to the Hotel/Allen Hall:

There are several options for reaching the Hotel from the Pittsburgh International Airport. A taxi should cost ~$50-60, while Uber or Lyft should be ~$30-40. Super Shuttle is ~$25 for a shared ride van.

There is a Port Authority bus line from the airport with stops near the hotel, the 28X (link) that runs every half hour from 5:30 am to midnight. The fare is only $2.75, though the trip will take slightly longer than an hour. Exit the bus at Bellefield Ave at 5th Ave, the Residence Inn by Marriott is at 10 minutes walk.

Participants

• Joseph Anderson (ESO)
• Charlotte Angus (Soton)
• Meghan Cliento (Pitt)
• Chris D’Andrea (Penn)
• Lluís Galbany (Pitt)
• Claudia Gutiérrez (Soton)
• Jared Hand (Pitt)
• Lisa Kelsey (Soton)
• Hanindyo Kuncarayakti (Turku)
• Shu Liu (Pitt)
• Joseph Lyman (Warwick)
• Hector Martınez (Pitt)
• Daniel Perrefort (Pitt)
• Mickael Rigault (IN2P3)
• Sebastián Sánchez (UNAM)
• Patricia Schady (UBath)
• Matthew Smith (Soton)
• Mark Sullivan (Soton)
• Phil Wiseman (Soton)
• Michael Wood-Vasey (Pitt)

Program

The day will start with an introductory talk about one of the three main topics of the workshop. We will have time for 25’ (+5’) talks, guided discussion, and walking-working excursions (WWE). During the afternoon coffee we will select some topics for discussion in small groups during the WWE, and that will be later discussed in common.

Talks:

L. Galbany: Welcome and introduction

S. Sánchez: Review of IFU studies of Nearby galaxies

P. Wiseman: Host Galaxies of Supernovae in the Dark Energy Survey

L. Galbany: SN IFU surveys: PISCO / AMUSING / MaNGA / HiKIDS

H. Martínez: Recovering lost light: discovery of supernova remnants with integral field spectroscopy data

C. Badenes: Delay Time Distributions of SNe with IFU data

M. Smith: Host galaxy properties of type Ia supernova as determined by the Dark Energy Survey

L. Kesley: The Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae in the Dark Energy Survey

M. Rigault: Consequences of SNIa Environmental Bias for Cosmology

J. Hand: Comparison between photometric and spectroscopic estimation of galaxy parameters

J. Lyman: The SIGNALS survey: a census of local star-formation

C. Angus: Superluminous Supernova Hosts

J. Anderson: Core-collapse supernova environments

H. Kuncarayakti: Nebular spectroscopy from AMUSING (P100-P101 recap) + ASASSN-14dd

P. Schady: Inferring the progenitor mass of explosive transients through their environment

C. Gutierrez: low-L SNII hosts

Contact

Cynthia.ferich(at)pitt(dot)edu

llgalbany(at)pitt(dot)edu