Propagating Uncertainties in the SALT3 Model Training Process to Cosmological Constraints

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are standardizable candles that must be modeled empirically to yield cosmological constraints. To understand the robustness of this modeling to variations in the model training procedure, we build an end-to-end pipeline to test the recently developed SALT3 model. We explore the consequences of removing pre-2000s low-$z$ or poorly calibrated $U$-band data, adjusting the amount and fidelity of SN Ia spectra, and using a model-independent framework to simulate the training data. We find the SALT3 model surfaces are improved by having additional spectra and $U$-band data, and can be shifted by $\sim 5\%$ if host galaxy contamination is not sufficiently removed from SN spectra. We find that resulting measurements of $w$ are consistent to within $2.5\%$ for all training variants explored in this work, with the largest shifts coming from variants that add color-dependent calibration offsets or host galaxy contamination to the training spectra, and those that remove pre-2000s low-$z$ data. These results demonstrate that the SALT3 model training procedure is largely robust to reasonable variations in the training data, but that additional attention must be paid to the treatment of spectroscopic data in the training process. We also find that the training procedure is sensitive to the color distributions of the input data; the resulting $w$ measurement can be biased by $\sim2\%$ if the color distribution is not sufficiently wide. Future low-$z$ data, particularly $u$-band observations and high signal-to-noise ratio SN Ia spectra, will help to significantly improve SN Ia modeling in the coming years.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

D/H Ratios on Saturn and Jupiter from Cassini CIRS

We present new measurements of the deuterium abundance on Jupiter and Saturn, showing evidence that Saturn's atmosphere contains less deuterium than Jupiter's. We analyzed far-infrared spectra from the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer to measure the abundance of HD on both giant planets. Our estimate of the Jovian D/H = (2.95 ± 0.55) × 10−5 is in agreement with previous measurements by ISO/SWS: (2.25 ± 0.35) × 10−5, and the Galileo probe: (2.6 ± 0.7) × 10−5. In contrast, our estimate of the Saturn value of (2.10 ± 0.13) × 10−5 is somewhat lower than on Jupiter (by a factor of ${0.71}_{-0.15}^{+0.22}$), contrary to model predictions of a higher ratio: Saturn/Jupiter = 1.05–1.20. The Saturn D/H value is consistent with estimates for hydrogen in the protosolar nebula (2.1 ± 0.5) × 10−5, but its apparent divergence from the Jovian value suggests that our understanding of planetary formation and evolution is incomplete, which is in agreement with previous work.The US-based authors: J.E.D.P., C.A.N., G.L.B., R.K.A., B.E.H., and F.M.F. were supported by the NASA Cassini Mission during the period when this research was conducted. L.N.F. was supported by a Royal Society Research Fellowship at the University of Leicester. P.G.J.I. was supported by the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council.Peer-reviewedPublisher Versio

Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relation from Redshift z≈8z\approx8 to the Local Universe

A tight positive correlation between the stellar mass and the gas-phase metallicity of galaxies has been observed at low redshifts. The redshift evolution of this correlation can strongly constrain theories of galaxy evolution. The advent of JWST allows probing the mass-metallicity relation at redshifts far beyond what was previously accessible. Here we report the discovery of two emission-line galaxies at redshifts 8.15 and 8.16 in JWST NIRCam imaging and NIRSpec spectroscopy of targets gravitationally lensed by the cluster RXJ2129.4$+$0005. We measure their metallicities and stellar masses along with nine additional galaxies at $7.2 < z_{\rm spec} < 9.5$ to report the first quantitative statistical inference of the mass-metallicity relation at $z\approx8$. We measure $\sim 0.9$ dex evolution in the normalization of the mass-metallicity relation from $z \approx 8$ to the local Universe; at fixed stellar mass, galaxies are 8 times less metal enriched at $z \approx 8$ compared to the present day. Our inferred normalization is in agreement with the predictions of the FIRE simulations. Our inferred slope of the mass-metallicity relation is similar to or slightly shallower than that predicted by FIRE or observed at lower redshifts. We compare the $z \approx 8$ galaxies to extremely low metallicity analog candidates in the local Universe, finding that they are generally distinct from extreme emission-line galaxies or "green peas" but are similar in strong emission-line ratios and metallicities to "blueberry galaxies". Despite this similarity, at fixed stellar mass, the $z \approx 8$ galaxies have systematically lower metallicities compared to blueberry galaxies.Comment: Published in Ap

A search for transients in the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS): Three new supernovae

The Reionization Cluster Survey (RELICS) imaged 41 galaxy clusters with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), in order to detect lensed and high-redshift galaxies. Each cluster was imaged to about 26.5 AB mag in three optical and four near-infrared bands, taken in two distinct visits separated by varying time intervals. We make use of the multiple near-infrared epochs to search for transient sources in the cluster fields, with the primary motivation of building statistics for bright caustic crossing events in gravitational arcs. Over the whole sample, we do not find any significant ($\gtrsim5 \sigma$) caustic crossing events, in line with expectations from semi-analytic calculations but in contrast to what may be naively expected from previous detections of some bright events, or from deeper transient surveys that do find high rates of such events. Nevertheless, we find six prominent supernova (SN) candidates over the 41 fields: three of them were previously reported and three are new ones reported here for the first time. Out of the six candidates, four are likely core-collapse (CC) SNe -- three in cluster galaxies, and among which only one was known before, and one slightly behind the cluster at $z\sim0.6-0.7$. The other two are likely Ia -- both of them previously known, one probably in a cluster galaxy, and one behind it at $z\simeq2$. Our study supplies empirical bounds for the rate of caustic crossing events in galaxy cluster fields to typical HST magnitudes, and lays the groundwork for a future SN rate study.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 10 pages, 3 figure

Spectroscopy from Lyman alpha to [O III] 5007 of a Triply Imaged Magnified Galaxy at Redshift z = 9.5

Given their extremely faint apparent brightness, the nature of the first galaxies and how they reionized the Universe's gas are not yet understood. Here we report the discovery, in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging, of a highly magnified, low-mass (log(M_*/M_sol)=7.70^{+0.11}_{-0.09}) galaxy visible when the Universe was only 510 Myr old, and follow-up prism spectroscopy of the galaxy extending from Lyman alpha to [O III] 5007 in its rest frame. Our JWST spectrum provides [O III] 5007 and H beta detections with a respective signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 40 and 13, as well as six additional lines with S/N > 3. These emission lines yield a redshift of z=9.51 and star-formation rate of 2.12 +- 0.53 solar masses per year. The galaxy's large inferred value of [O III]/[O II] = 16 +- 6 suggests that this galaxy has an escape fraction of ionizing radiation larger than 10%, indicating that a population of similar objects could contribute substantially to the reionization budget. Using multiple techniques, we infer a gas oxygen abundance of 12 + log(O/H) = 7.48 +- 0.05 dex, consistent within 2 sigma of the mass-metallicity relation observed for dwarf galaxies in the local Universe

The DEHVILS Survey Overview and Initial Data Release: High-Quality Near-Infrared Type Ia Supernova Light Curves at Low Redshift

While the sample of optical Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) light curves (LCs) usable for cosmological parameter measurements surpasses 2000, the sample of published, cosmologically viable near-infrared (NIR) SN Ia LCs, which have been shown to be good "standard candles," is still $\lesssim$ 200. Here, we present high-quality NIR LCs for 83 SNe Ia ranging from $0.002 < z < 0.09$ as a part of the Dark Energy, H$_0$, and peculiar Velocities using Infrared Light from Supernovae (DEHVILS) survey. Observations are taken using UKIRT's WFCAM, where the median depth of the images is 20.7, 20.1, and 19.3 mag (Vega) for $Y$, $J$, and $H$-bands, respectively. The median number of epochs per SN Ia is 18 for all three bands ($YJH$) combined and 6 for each band individually. We fit 47 SN Ia LCs that pass strict quality cuts using three LC models, SALT3, SNooPy, and BayeSN and find scatter on the Hubble diagram to be comparable to or better than scatter from optical-only fits in the literature. Fitting NIR-only LCs, we obtain standard deviations ranging from 0.128-0.135 mag. Additionally, we present a refined calibration method for transforming 2MASS magnitudes to WFCAM magnitudes using HST CALSPEC stars that results in a 0.03 mag shift in the WFCAM $Y$-band magnitudes.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by MNRA

Models and simulations for the photometric lsst astronomical time series classification challenge (Plasticc)

We describe the simulated data sample for the "Photometric LSST Astronomical Time Series Classification Challenge" (PLAsTiCC), a publicly available challenge to classify transient and variable events that will be observed by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a new facility expected to start in the early 2020s. The challenge was hosted by Kaggle, ran from 2018 September 28 to 2018 December 17, and included 1,094 teams competing for prizes. Here we provide details of the 18 transient and variable source models, which were not revealed until after the challenge, and release the model libraries at this https URL. We describe the LSST Operations Simulator used to predict realistic observing conditions, and we describe the publicly available SNANA simulation code used to transform the models into observed fluxes and uncertainties in the LSST passbands (ugrizy). Although PLAsTiCC has finished, the publicly available models and simulation tools are being used within the astronomy community to further improve classification, and to study contamination in photometrically identified samples of type Ia supernova used to measure properties of dark energy. Our simulation framework will continue serving as a platform to improve the PLAsTiCC models, and to develop new models

LensWatch: I. Resolved HST Observations and Constraints on the Strongly-Lensed Type Ia Supernova 2022qmx ("SN Zwicky")

Supernovae (SNe) that have been multiply-imaged by gravitational lensing are rare and powerful probes for cosmology. Each detection is an opportunity to develop the critical tools and methodologies needed as the sample of lensed SNe increases by orders of magnitude with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The latest such discovery is of the quadruply-imaged Type Ia SN 2022qmx (aka, "SN Zwicky"; Goobar et al. 2022) at z = 0.3544. SN Zwicky was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in spatially unresolved data. Here we present follow-up Hubble Space Telescope observations of SN Zwicky, the first from the multi-cycle "LensWatch" program (www.lenswatch.org). We measure photometry for each of the four images of SN Zwicky, which are resolved in three WFC3/UVIS filters (F475W, F625W, F814W) but unresolved with WFC3/IR F160W, and produce an analysis of the lensing system using a variety of independent lens modeling methods. We find consistency between time delays estimated with the single epoch of HST photometry and the lens model predictions constrained through the multiple image positions, with both inferring time delays of <1 day. Our lens models converge to an Einstein radius of (0.168+0.009-0.005)", the smallest yet seen in a lensed SN. The "standard candle" nature of SN Zwicky provides magnification estimates independent of the lens modeling that are brighter by ~1.5 mag and ~0.8 mag for two of the four images, suggesting significant microlensing and/or additional substructure beyond the flexibility of our image-position mass models

Spectroscopy of the Supernova H0pe Host Galaxy at Redshift 1.78

Supernova (SN) H0pe was discovered as a new transient in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRCam images of the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0 taken as part of the "Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science" (PEARLS) JWST GTO program (# 1176) on 2023 March 30 (AstroNote 2023-96; Frye et al. 2023). The transient is a compact source associated with a background galaxy that is stretched and triply-imaged by the cluster's strong gravitational lensing. This paper reports spectra in the 950-1370 nm observer frame of two of the galaxy's images obtained with Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) Utility Camera in the Infrared (LUCI) in longslit mode two weeks after the \JWST\ observations. The individual average spectra show the [OII] doublet and the Balmer and 4000 Angstrom breaks at redshift z=1.783+/-0.002. The CIGALE best-fit model of the spectral energy distribution indicates that SN H0pe's host galaxy is massive (Mstar~6x10^10 Msun after correcting for a magnification factor ~7) with a predominant intermediate age (~2 Gyr) stellar population, moderate extinction, and a magnification-corrected star formation rate ~13 Msun/yr, consistent with being below the main sequence of star formation. These properties suggest that H0pe might be a type Ia SN. Additional observations of SN H0pe and its host recently carried out with JWST (JWST-DD-4446; PI: B. Frye) will be able to both determine the SN classification and confirm its association with the galaxy analyzed in this work.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Letter accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic