Supernova 2017eaw

Technologies:

Python

Photo of NGC 6946 and SN 2017eaw (The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0).

In the summer of 2023, I was awarded a fellowship overseas at the University of Cádiz (Escuela Ingenieria) in Puerto Real, Andalucía, Spain. Here, I conducted research with my mentor, Dr. Antonia Morales Garoffolo, alongside the CRISP collaboration of astrophysicists on the Polarimetry team. Here, I leveraged Python, combining linear regression with Fermi-Dirac statistics to fit the blue-band, visible-band, red-band, and near-infrared-band light curves (light intensity over time) of supernova 2017eaw, a core-collapse supernova in the galaxy NGC 6946. This unique combination of statistical methods gave way to fit functions whose relative uncertainties were all roughly 10% or less. We used these fit functions to compare parameters derived from amateur and published data of 2017eaw. We were able to establish a one-to-one relationship between three out of the five fit parameters, signaling that the data was ready for further polarimetry studies.

I have presented this research at a conference, which you can learn more about on my Conferences page!

Gallery:

Example of a light curve (Anderson et al. 2014).

Methodology of light curve fitting (Olivares et al. 2008).

Blue-band light curves and associated uncertainties.

Visible-band light curves and associated uncertainties.

Red-band light curves and associated uncertainties.

Near-infrared-band light curves and associated uncertainties.

One-to-one relation of the a_0 parameter, the height of the transition phase.

One-to-one relation of the w_0 parameter, the width of the transition phase.

One-to-one relation of the m_0 parameter, the magnitude associated with t_PT.

References:

Akrami, Yashar. “Supersymmetry vis-á-vis Observation”, PhD dissertation, Stockholm University, 2011.
Anderson et al. (2014). “Characterizing the V-band Light-curves of Hydrogen-rich Type II Supernovae”, The Astrophysical Journal, 786(67), doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/786/1/67.
Arcavi, Iair. “Hydrogen-Rich Core-Collapse Supernovae”, Springer International Publishing, 2017, 13.
Gal-Yam, Avishay. "Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae", Springer International Publishing, 2017, 12.
Pian, Elena & Mazzali, Paolo A. “Hydrogen-Poor Core-Collapse Supernovae”, Springer International Publishing, 2017, 14.
Olivares et al. (2008). “The Standardized Candle Method for Type II Plateau Supernovae”, The Astrophysical Journal, 715(2), doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/715/2/833.
Reiss et al. (1998). “Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant”, The Astronomical Journal, 116(1009), doi: 10.1086/300499.
“The Dispersion of Elements”, NASA, https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/lessons/xray_spectra/background-elements.html.
Tomasella et al. (2013). “Comparison of progenitor mass estimates for the Type IIP SN 2012A”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 434(2), doi: 10.1093/mnras/stt1130.
Tsvetkov et al. (2017). “The light curves of type II-P SN 2017eaw: first 200 days”, Cornell University, 1801(340), https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1801.00340.
“Webpage of the CRISP Project”, CRISP, https://sn-crisp.github.io/CRISP/.