Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Comparative Study Of The Absolute Magnitude Distributions Of Supernovae., D. Richardson, D. Branch, D. Casebeer, J. Millard, R. C. Thomas, E. Baron

Faculty and Staff Publications

The Asiago Supernova Catalog is used to carry out a comparative study of supernova absolute magnitude distributions. An overview of the absolute magnitudes of the supernovae in the current observational sample is presented, and the evidence for subluminous and overluminous events is examined. The fraction of supernovae that are subluminous (MB> -15) appears to be higher (perhaps much higher) than 1/5 but it remains very uncertain. The fraction that are overluminous (MB > -20) is lower (probably much lower) than 0.01. The absolute magnitude distributions for each supernova type, restricted to events within 1 Gpc, are compared. Although these distributions are …