The influence of host galaxy morphology on the properties of Type Ia supernovae from the JLA compilation

TL;DR

This study investigates how the morphology of host galaxies influences Type Ia supernova properties and their use in cosmology, highlighting environmental effects on supernova luminosities and correlations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the impact of host galaxy type on SN Ia luminosity corrections using the comprehensive JLA dataset.

Findings

SN Ia stretch correlates with host galaxy type.

Supernovae in elliptical/lenticular galaxies are slightly fainter after corrections.

Host galaxy morphology affects supernova luminosity parameters.

Abstract

The observational cosmology with distant Type Ia supernovae (SNe) as standard candles claims that the Universe is in accelerated expansion, caused by a large fraction of dark energy. In this paper we investigate the SN Ia environment, studying the impact of the nature of their host galaxies on the Hubble diagram fitting. The supernovae (192 SNe) used in the analysis were extracted from Joint-Light-curves-Analysis (JLA) compilation of high-redshift and nearby supernovae which is the best one to date. The analysis is based on the empirical fact that SN Ia luminosities depend on their light curve shapes and colors. We confirm that the stretch parameter of Type Ia supernovae is correlated with the host galaxy type. The supernovae with lower stretch are hosted mainly in elliptical and lenticular galaxies. No significant correlation between SN Ia colour and host morphology was found. We also examine how the luminosities of SNe Ia change depending on host galaxy morphology after stretch and colour corrections. Our results show that in old stellar populations and low dust environments, the supernovae are slightly fainter. SNe Ia in elliptical and lenticular galaxies have a higher $\alpha$ (slope in luminosity-stretch) and $\beta$ (slope in luminosity-colour) parameter than in spirals. However, the observed shift is at the 1-$\sigma$ uncertainty level and, therefore, can not be considered as significant. We confirm that the supernova properties depend on their environment and that the incorporation of a host galaxy term into the Hubble diagram fit is expected to be crucial for future cosmological analyses.