Unravelling Enigmas of Type Ia SuperUnravelling Enigmas of Type Ia Supernova Progenitors and Cosmology through Strong Lensingnova Progenitors and Cosmology through Strong Lensing
End of November, the European Research Council announced that Sherry
Suyu, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
and member of the Max-Planck@TUM programme, is one of the awardees of
the 2017 ERC Consolidator Grants. With this funding, Suyu can expand her
group to study gravitationally lensed supernovae and find out more
about their progenitors. Strongly lensed supernovae also provide an
independent way of measuring the Hubble constant, which tells scientists
about the rate of expansion of the Universe.
Illustration: Chien-Hsiu Lee/Subaru Telescope
The LENSNOVA project proposed by Sherry Suyu plans to capitalize on
her experience in the field of strong lensing time delays. With the aid
of lensing, SNe can be observed in their entirety with unprecedented
temporal sampling. Observations of the beginning of SN explosions are
key to revealing SN progenitors that have been under debate for decades.
Strongly lensed SNe Ia also allow an independent measurement of the
Hubble constant (H0) that sets the cosmic expansion rate. The
independent measurement is important to ascertain the possible need of
new physics beyond the standard cosmological model, given the tensions
in current H0 measurements. Thus, the LENSNOVA project will
shed light on the natures of SNe Ia progenitors and dark energy, two of
the greatest puzzles in the present era.
The advent of new, powerful telescopes such as the Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope and the Euclid mission makes LENSNOVA particularly
timely for building the first sample of a handful of strongly lensed SNe
Ia. The ERC grant now enables Sherry Suyu to recruit further
researchers for her team and to acquire the computing resources needed
to capitalise on the new data. Thus, the project could potentially
revolutionise both the fields of stellar physics and cosmology.
The
reconstructed surface brightness distribution of the supernova host
galaxy in Fig 1 from the best lens model. The location of the supernova
is indicated with a blue star. From More, Suyu et al
The ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to outstanding researchers of
any nationality and age in any field of research, with at least seven
and up to twelve years of experience after PhD, and a scientific track
record showing great promise. Research must be conducted in a public or
private research organisation located in one of the EU Member States or
Associated Countries. The funding (maximum of €2 million per grant), is
provided for up to five years and mostly covers the employment of
researchers and other staff to consolidate the grantees' teams.
Proposals are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers who
assess them on the basis of excellence as the sole criterion.
More Information
Cosmology and extragalactic astrophysics with gravitational lensing
Max Planck Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
ERC Consolidator Grants 2017
1. More, Suyu, Oguri et al.
Interpreting the Strongly Lensed Supernova iPTF16geu: Time Delay Predictions,
Microlensing, and Lensing Rates
Microlensing, and Lensing Rates
Astrophysical Journal Letters, 835:L25 (5pp), 2017 February 1
