# Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae and Preliminary Cosmological Constraints from the ESSENCE Survey

 Title: Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae and Preliminary Cosmological Constraints from the ESSENCE Survey Author: Narayan, Gautham Siddharth Citation: Narayan, Gautham Siddharth. 2013. Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae and Preliminary Cosmological Constraints from the ESSENCE Survey. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Full Text & Related Files: Narayan_gsas.harvard_0084L_10841.pdf (15.36Mb; PDF) Abstract: The ESSENCE survey discovered 213 type Ia supernovae at redshifts 0.10 < z < 0.81 between 2002 and 2008. We present their R and I band light curve measurements, obtained using the MOSAIC II imager at the CTIO 4 m, along with rapid response spectroscopy for each object from a range of large aperture ground based telescopes. We detail our program to obtain quantitative classifications and precise redshifts from our spectroscopic follow-up of each object. We describe our efforts to improve the precision of the calibration of the CTIO 4 m natural photometric system. We use several empirical metrics to measure our internal photometric consistency and our absolute calibration of the survey. We assess the effect of various sources of systematic error on our measured fluxes, and estimate that the total systematic error budget from the photometric calibration is ~1%. We combine 108 ESSENCE SNIa that pass stringent quality cuts with a compilation of 441 SNIa from 3 year results presented by the Supernova Legacy Survey and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to produce preliminary cosmological constraints employing the SNIa . This constitutes the largest sample of well-calibrated, spectroscopically confirmed SNIa to date. Assuming a flat Universe, we obtain a joint constraint of $$\Omega_M = 0.266^{+0.026}_{-0.016}(stat 1\sigma)$$, and $$w = -1.112^{+0.069}_{-0.072}(stat 1\sigma)$$. These measurements are consistent with a cosmological constant. Terms of Use: This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA Citable link to this page: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11129185 Downloads of this work: