The volumetric rate of normal type Ia supernovae in the local Universe discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory

C. Frohmaier*, M. Sullivan, P. E. Nugent, M. Smith, G. Dimitriadis, J. S. Bloom, S. B. Cenko, M. M. Kasliwal, S. R. Kulkarni, K. Maguire, E. O. Ofek, D. Poznanski, R. M. Quimb

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present the volumetric rate of normal type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). Using strict data-quality cuts, and considering only periods when the PTF maintained a regular cadence, PTF discovered 90 SNe Ia at z 0.09 in a well-controlled sample over three years of operation (2010-2012). We use this to calculate the volumetric rate of SN Ia events by comparing this sample to simulations of hundreds of millions of SN Ia light curves produced in statistically representative realizations of the PTF survey. This quantifies the recovery efficiency of each PTF SN Ia event, and thus the relative weighting of each event. From this, the volumetric SN Ia rate was found to be rv = 2.43 ± 0.29 (stat)+0.33 -0.19(sys) × 10-5 SNe yr-1 Mpc-3 h3 70. This represents the most precise local measurement of the SNIa rate.We fit a simple SNIa delay-time distributionmodel,αt-β , to our PTF rate measurement combined with a literature sample of rate measurements from surveys at higher redshifts. We find β∼ 1, consistent with a progenitor channel governed by the gravitational inspiral of binary white dwarfs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2308-2320
Number of pages13
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume486
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2019

Funding

FundersFunder number
EU/FP7 ERC
U.S. Department of EnergyDE-AC02-05CH11231
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Seventh Framework Programme615929
Seventh Framework Programme

    Keywords

    • methods: data analysis
    • supernovae: general.
    • surveys

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