Environmental Dependence of Type Ia Supernova Luminosities from a Sample without a Local-Global Difference in Host Star Formation

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that restricting Type Ia supernovae to low-mass, star-forming host galaxies reveals a significant luminosity difference based on local environment, improving correction methods for cosmological measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a new local environment correction method using host galaxy mass to account for supernova luminosity variations at high redshift.

Findings

SNe Ia in star-forming environments are 0.081 mag fainter than in passive environments.

The local environment correction is more effective than global host galaxy properties.

The method is applicable to high-redshift supernova surveys.

Abstract

It is now established that there is a dependence of the luminosity of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) on environment: SNe Ia in young, star-forming, metal-poor stellar populations appear fainter after light-curve shape corrections than those in older, passive, metal-rich environments. This is accounted for in cosmological studies using a global property of the SN host galaxy, typically the host galaxy stellar mass. However, recent low-redshift studies suggest that this effect manifests itself most strongly when using the local star-formation rate (SFR) at the SN location, rather than the global SFR or stellar mass of the host galaxy. At high-redshift, such local SFRs are difficult to determine; here, we show that an equivalent 'local' correction can be made by restricting the SN Ia sample in globally star-forming host galaxies to a low-mass host galaxy subset ($\le10^{10} M_{\odot}$). Comparing this sample of SNe Ia (in locally star-forming environments) to those in locally passive host galaxies, we find that SNe Ia in locally star-forming environments are $0.081\pm0.018$ mag fainter ($4.5\sigma$), consistent with the result reported by Rigault et al. (2015), but our conclusion is based on a sample ~5 times larger over a wider redshift range. This is a larger difference than when splitting the SN Ia sample based on global host galaxy SFR or host galaxy stellar mass. This method can be used in ongoing and future high-redshift SN surveys, where local SN Ia environments are difficult to determine.