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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(536), p. 62-67, 2000

DOI: 10.1086/308939

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Tests of the Accelerating Universe with Near-Infrared Observations of a High-Redshift Type Ia Supernova

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Preprint: archiving forbidden
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Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We have measured the rest-frame B,V, and I-band light curves of a high-redshift type Ia supernova (SN Ia), SN 1999Q (z=0.46), using HST and ground-based near-infrared detectors. A goal of this study is the measurement of the color excess, E_{B-I}, which is a sensitive indicator of interstellar or intergalactic dust which could affect recent cosmological measurements from high-redshift SNe Ia. Our observations disfavor a 30% opacity of SN Ia visual light by dust as an alternative to an accelerating Universe. This statement applies to both Galactic-type dust (rejected at the 3.4 sigma confidence level) and greyer dust (grain size > 0.1 microns; rejected at the 2.3 to 2.6 sigma confidence level) as proposed by Aguirre (1999). The rest-frame $I$-band light cur ve shows the secondary maximum a month after B maximum typical of nearby SNe Ia of normal luminosi ty, providing no indication of evolution as a function of redshift out to z~0.5. A n expanded set of similar observations could improve the constraints on any contribution of extragalactic dust to the dimming of high-redshift SNe Ia. Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, 12 pages, 2 figures