Fixing the U-band photometry of Type Ia supernovae

Abstract

We present previously unpublished photometry of supernovae 2003gs and 2003hv. Using spectroscopically derived corrections to the U-band photometry, we reconcile U-band light curves made from imagery with the Cerro Tololo 0.9 m, 1.3 m, and Las Campanas 1 m telescopes. Previously, such light curves showed a 0.4 mag spread at one month after maximum light. This gives us hope that a set of corrected ultraviolet light curves of nearby objects can contribute to the full utilization of rest-frame U-band data of supernovae at redshift ∼0.3–0.8. As pointed out recently by Kessler et al. in the context of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey supernova search, if we take the published U-band photometry of nearby Type Ia supernovae at face value, there is a 0.12 mag U-band anomaly in the distance moduli of higher redshift objects. This anomaly led the Sloan survey to eliminate from their analyses all photometry obtained in the rest-frame U-band. The Supernova Legacy Survey eliminated observer frame U-band photometry, which is to say nearby objects observed in the U-band, but they used photometry of high-redshift objects no matter in which band the photons were emitted.