The discovery of the most distant known type Ia supernova at redshift 1.914

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Dennis Jones
  • S.A. Rodney
  • A.G. Riess
  • T. Dahlen
  • S. Casertano
  • A. Koekemoer
  • H.C. Ferguson
  • N.A. Grogin
  • B. Mobasher
  • C. McCully
  • C.R. Keeton
  • B. Patel
  • S.W. Jha
  • T.F. Frederiksen
  • L.-G. Strolger
  • T.G. Wiklind
  • P. Challis
  • R.P. Kirshner
  • D. Kocevski
  • O. Graur
  • B. Hayden
  • P. Garnavich
  • B.J. Weiner
  • A.V. Filippenko
We present the discovery of a Type Ia supernova (SN) at redshift z = 1.914 from the CANDELS multi-cycle treasury program on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This SN was discovered in the infrared using the Wide-Field Camera 3, and it is the highest-redshift Type Ia SN yet observed. We classify this object as a SN Ia by comparing its light curve and spectrum with those of a large sample of Type Ia and core-collapse SNe. Its apparent magnitude is consistent with that expected from the ¿CDM concordance cosmology. We discuss the use of spectral evidence for classification of z > 1.5 SNe Ia using HST grism simulations, finding that spectral data alone can frequently rule out SNe II, but distinguishing between SNe Ia and SNe Ib/c can require prohibitively long exposures. In such cases, a quantitative analysis of the light curve may be necessary for classification. Our photometric and spectroscopic classification methods can aid the determination of SN rates and cosmological parameters from the full high-redshift CANDELS SN sample.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume768
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)166
ISSN0004-637X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 May 2013

ID: 45678196