Optical Light Curves of Supernovae

Photometry is the most easily acquired information about supernovae. The light curves constructed from regular imaging provide signatures not only for the energy input, the radiation escape, the local environment and the progenitor stars, but also for the intervening dust. They are the main tool for the use of supernovae as distance indicators through the determination of the luminosity. The light curve of SN 1987A still is the richest and longest observed example for a core-collapse supernova. Despite the peculiar nature of this object, as explosion of a blue supergiant, it displayed all the characteristics of Type II supernovae. The light curves of Type Ib/c supernovae are more homogeneous, but still display the signatures of explosions in massive stars, among them early interaction with their circumstellar material. Wrinkles in the near-uniform appearance of thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae have emerged during the past decade. Subtle differences have been observed especially at near-infrared wavelengths. Interestingly, the light curve shapes appear to correlate with a variety of other characteristics of these supernovae. The construction of bolometric light curves provides the most direct link to theoretical predictions and can yield sorely needed constraints for the models. First steps in this direction have been already made.Comment: To be published in:"Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursters", Lecture Notes in Physics (http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp

Influence of stochastic geometric imperfection on the ultimate strength of stiffened panel in compression

The initial geometric imperfection is recognized as substantially influential on the buckling behaviour and ultimate strength of stiffened plated structures. Conventionally, the initial geometric imperfection is defined in a deterministic manner, such as a hungry-horse mode, ARE mode or critical buckling mode with characteristic magnitudes. However, due to the uncertainty in manufacturing and in-service effects, the initial geometric imperfection should be better described as a random field. This paper aims to assess the effects of the stochastic nature of geometric imperfection on the ultimate strength of stiffened panel in compression. A probabilistically-based imperfection model developed by spectral representation method is applied to an orthogonally stiffened panel. A Monte-Carlo Simulation enhanced by a Latin-Hypercube Scheme (LHS) is utilized to sample the initial geometric imperfection. A series of nonlinear finite element analyses are completed to calculate the ultimate compressive strength of the case study model. With reference to the deterministic representations, the impact of the stochastic imperfection model is discussed. The present work may provide useful insights for the reliability-based ship structural assessment regarding the uncertainty due to geometric imperfection