Are Type Ia Supernovae in Restframe $H$ Brighter in More Massive Galaxies?

TL;DR

This study finds that Type Ia supernovae are intrinsically brighter in the H-band in more massive galaxies, with implications for understanding their use as standard candles and the influence of host galaxy properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates a clear correlation between host galaxy mass and intrinsic brightness of SNeIa in the H-band, revealing a different trend than optical wavelengths after standard corrections.

Findings

SNeIa in galaxies >10^{10.43} M_{ ext{sun}} are 0.13 mag brighter in H-band.

Removing outliers shifts the mass threshold and reduces the brightness step in H-band.

Optical brightness residuals are brighter in more massive galaxies after corrections.

Abstract

We analyze 143 Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) observed in $H$ band (1.6-1.8 $\mu$m) and find SNeIa are intrinsically brighter in $H$-band with increasing host galaxy stellar mass. We find SNeIa in galaxies more massive than $10^{10.43} M_{\odot}$ are $0.13 \pm 0.04$ mag brighter in $H$ than SNeIa in less massive galaxies. The same set of SNeIa observed at optical wavelengths, after width-color-luminosity corrections, exhibit a $0.10 \pm 0.03$ mag offset in the Hubble residuals. We observe an outlier population ($|\Delta H_{\rm max}| > 0.5$ mag) in the $H$ band and show that removing the outlier population moves the mass threshold to $10^{10.65} M_{\odot}$ and reduces the step in $H$ band to $0.08 \pm 0.04$ mag, but the equivalent optical mass step is increased to $0.13 \pm 0.04$ mag. We conclude the outliers do not drive the brightness--host-mass correlation. Less massive galaxies preferentially host more higher-stretch SNeIa, which are intrinsically brighter and bluer. It is only after correction for width-luminosity and color-luminosity relationships that SNeIa have brighter optical Hubble residuals in more massive galaxies. Thus finding SNeIa are intrinsically brighter in $H$ in more massive galaxies is an opposite correlation to the intrinsic (pre-width-luminosity correction) optical brightness. If dust and the treatment of intrinsic color variation were the main driver of the host galaxy mass correlation, we would not expect a correlation of brighter $H$-band SNeIa in more massive galaxies.