Joseph David Lyman
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OBSERVATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE PROGENITORS OF SUPERNOVAE Joseph David Lyman ASTROPHYSICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Liverpool John Moores University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. March 20, 2014 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be pub- lished without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be ac- knowledged c J. D. Lyman 2013. ° ii Declaration The work presented in this thesis was carried out in the Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University. Unless otherwise stated, it is the original work of the author. Whilst registered as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, for which submission is now made, the author has not been registered as a candidate for any other award. This thesis has not been submitted in whole, or in part, for any other degree. Joseph Lyman Astrophysics Research Institute Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool Science Park Brownlow Hill Liverpool L3 5RF UK iii OBSERVATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE PROGENITORS OF SUPERNOVAE JOSEPH DAVID LYMAN Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ASTROPHYSICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE October 2013 Abstract Supernovae (SNe) are the spectacular deaths of stars and have shaped the universe we see today. Their far-reaching influence affects the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies, star formation, neutron star and black hole formation, and they are largely responsible for most of the heavy elements that make up the universe, including around 90 per cent of the reader. They also provide laboratories of nuclear and particle physics far beyond what we can construct on Earth and act as probes of extreme density and energy. This thesis presents new research into understanding the nature of the progenitor systems of various types of SNe, as well as presenting results that will allow their study to be more productive in the future, through use of automated pipelines and methods to increase the science value of discov- ered SNe. An environmental study of two peculiar types of transients (‘Calcium-rich’ and ‘2002cx-like’), which may not be true SNe, reveals extremely different ages of the exploding systems that will constrain the current theoretical effort into discovering the progenitor sys- tems. The GRB-SN 120422A/2012bz is investigated and found to be an extremely luminous and energetic SN, even amongst the infamously bright GRB-SNe. A method is presented that allows an accurate reconstruction of the bolometric light curve of a core-collapse SN, which relies on only two optical filter observations – this will hugely reduce the observational cost of constructing bolometric light curves, a tool of great importance when hoping to constrain the nature of a SN explosion and hence its progenitor. Finally, this method is utilised to construct the largest bolometric CCSN bolometric light curve sample to date, and these are iv analytically modelled to reveal population statistics of the explosions, thus informing on the nature of the progenitors. v Publications In the course of completing this thesis work, the contents of a number of chapters have already been published by the author. These are: J. D. Lyman, P. A. James, H. B. Perets, J. P. Anderson, A. Gal-Yam, P. Mazzali, and • S. M. Percival. Environment-derived constraints on the progenitors of low-luminosity Type I supernovae. MNRAS, 434:527–541, Sept. 2013 J. D. Lyman, D. Bersier, and P. A. James. Bolometric corrections for optical light • curves of core-collapse supernovae. MNRAS, 437:3848–3862, Feb. 2014 Schulze et al. (inc. Lyman). GRB 120422A/SN 2012bz: A link between low- and • high-luminosity GRBs? A&A accepted (arXiv:1401.3774), Jan. 2014 vi Acknowledgements I wish to begin by acknowledging the role played over the last three years of my supervisors, David Bersier and Phil James. Their guidance and insight, generally coupled with a heap of dry humour, have made my first years of research thoroughly enjoyable and productive. They have instilled in me a critical approach to research that has guided me towards becoming an independent researcher. Their attention to developing my career during these first years ensured I was always greeted with an open door to discuss and dissect the work of others as well as my own. The atmosphere at the ARI has made it a pleasure to arrive each day, and I am especially grateful to the various organisers, and participants, of the pub outings and weekly football – both often needed sources of release after a week of performing stellar post-mortems. In order to reach this point, I am have relied upon the love and support provided by my fam- ily throughout my life. In particular, I would like to thank my parents for their unwavering support of my education and devotion to offer me every opportunity possible. For encour- aging me to follow this passion wherever it leads, and for always insisting I reach for the stars. Finally, I want to attempt to express my gratitude for the love provided to me by Naomi, with- out whom this thesis would not exist. You have been constant pillar of support throughout my university life and made these the best years of my life, and I will be eternally indebted to you for helping me reach where I am today. Love You. vii Contents Declaration iii Abstract iv Publications vi Acknowledgements vii Contents viii ListofTables .................................... xiii ListofFigures.................................... xv 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Historicalorigins ............................... 2 1.2 ModernSNDiscoveries. 3 1.3 ClassificationofSNe ............................. 3 1.4 Physics of the explosions and progenitor properties . .......... 5 1.4.1 ThermonuclearSNe . 7 1.4.2 Core-collapseSNe . 9 viii 1.5 Thesisintroduction .............................. 18 2 Image subtraction and the CLASP pipeline 20 2.1 Imagesubtraction............................... 20 2.2 CLASP.................................... 25 2.2.1 SUBPIPE ............................... 25 2.2.2 PHOTPIPE ............................... 29 2.2.3 Examplesofusage .......................... 32 3 The environments of low-luminosity type I supernovae 37 3.1 Star-formation tracers in SN hosts as diagnostics for the progenitor systems 38 3.2 The environments of low-luminosity type I supernovae . ......... 40 3.3 Introduction.................................. 40 3.3.1 Ca-richtransients. 40 3.3.2 SN2002cx-like transients . 42 3.4 Methods.................................... 44 3.5 Transient samples and observations . ..... 49 3.6 Individual properties of the transients and their environments . 55 3.6.1 Ca-richtransients. 55 3.6.2 SN 2002cx-like transients . 63 3.7 Strength of association of transients with ongoing SF . .......... 64 3.7.1 Hostgalaxyclassifications . 64 3.7.2 Transient locations and ongoing SF . 66 ix 3.8 GALEX NCRanalysis............................. 70 3.9 Discussion................................... 72 3.10Summary ................................... 78 4 Creating and modelling the bolometric light curve of SN 2012bz 79 4.1 GRB-SNe and the case of GRB120422A/SN 2012bz . 80 4.2 The bolometric light curve of SN 2012bz . 81 4.3 Analytical modelling of SN 2012bz . 85 5 Bolometric corrections to optical light curves of CCSNe 88 5.1 Investigating the progenitors of CCSNe and the role of bolometric light curves 89 5.2 Data...................................... 91 5.2.1 Photometry .............................. 91 5.2.2 SNsample .............................. 92 5.3 Method .................................... 96 5.3.1 Interpolations of light curves . 96 5.3.2 SEDconstruction. 97 5.4 Results..................................... 100 5.4.1 Flux contributions with epoch . 100 5.4.2 Optical colours and bolometric corrections . ..... 102 5.4.3 The radiatively-/recombination- powered phase . ....... 104 5.4.4 Thecoolingphase .......................... 108 5.4.5 Fits to other colours . 110 x 5.5 Discussion................................... 114 5.5.1 Treatment of the UV/IR . 115 5.5.2 Time-scales of validity . 118 5.5.3 Reddening .............................. 120 5.5.4 Extracting Sloan magnitudes from Johnson–Cousins SEDs..... 123 5.6 SNe 1987A and 2009jf and PTF 12dam – test cases . 126 5.6.1 SN1987A .............................. 126 5.6.2 SN2009jf............................... 129 5.6.3 PTF12dam.............................. 130 5.7 Summary ................................... 131 6 Creating and modelling bolometric light curves of 36 literature SE SNe 133 6.1 Data...................................... 134 6.2 Method .................................... 136 6.2.1 Theanalyticalmodel . 137 6.3 Results..................................... 143 6.3.1 Bolometric light curves . 143 6.3.2 Modelling............................... 144 6.4 Summary ................................... 168 7 Thesis summary and future research 170 7.1 Thesissummary................................ 170 7.2 Futureresearch ................................ 171 xi A The Normalised Cumulative Rank method 174 B The CLASP pipeline 181 B.1 CLASPusagemanual ............................ 182 B.1.1 QuickUse............................... 182 B.1.2 Requirements............................. 183 B.1.3 Theconfigurationfiles . 183 B.1.4 Commandline ............................ 184 B.1.5 GUI.................................. 187 B.1.6 Output ................................ 189 Bibliography 192 xii List of Tables 3.1 Hα narrow-band filter properties. 48 3.2 Properties of Ca-rich transients and