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arXiv · 2002.08378

HOLISMOKES -- I. Highly Optimised Lensing Investigations of Supernovae, Microlensing Objects, and Kinematics of Ellipticals and Spirals

Abstract

We present the HOLISMOKES programme on strong gravitational lensing of supernovae as a probe of supernova (SN) physics and cosmology. We investigate the effects of microlensing on early-phase SN Ia spectra using four different SN explosion models, and find that within 10 rest-frame days after SN explosion, distortions of SN Ia spectra due to microlensing are typically negligible ($<$1% distortion within the 1$\sigma$ spread, and $\lesssim$10% distortion within the 2$\sigma$ spread). This shows great prospects of using lensed SNe Ia to obtain intrinsic early-phase SN spectra for deciphering SN Ia progenitors. As a demonstration of the usefulness of lensed SNe Ia for cosmology, we simulate a sample of mock lensed SN Ia systems that are expected to have accurate and precise time-delay measurements in the era of the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Adopting realistic yet conservative uncertainties on their time-delay distances and lens angular diameter distances (of 6.6% and 5%, respectively), we find that a sample of 20 lensed SNe Ia would allow a constraint on the Hubble constant ($H_0$) with 1.3% uncertainty in the flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. We find a similar constraint on $H_0$ in an open $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, while the constraint degrades to $3\%$ in a flat $w$CDM cosmology. We anticipate lensed SNe to be an independent and powerful probe of SN physics and cosmology in the upcoming LSST era.

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BibTeXRIS

S. H. Suyu, S. Huber, R. Cañameras, M. Kromer, S. Schuldt, S. Taubenberger, A. Yıldırım, V. Bonvin, J. H. H. Chan, F. Courbin, U. Nöbauer, S. A. Sim, D. Sluse. 2020-02-19. HOLISMOKES -- I. Highly Optimised Lensing Investigations of Supernovae, Microlensing Objects, and Kinematics of Ellipticals and Spirals. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202037757

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