Presentation 1 : Short Talk
Dust in High Redshift Supernova Galaxies
D. Clements, D. Farrah, M. Fox, M. Rowan-Robinson, J. Afonso, P. Meikle
We present the results of SCUBA submm observations of a sample of high
redshift (z~0.5) SN1a host galaxies selected by the High Redshift
Supernova Search Team and the Supernova Cosmology Project. We find
evidence for significant dust opacity in these SN host galaxies, both
statistically in the sample as a whole, and in two objects whose dust
emission is directly detected. These results are compared to models
for the evolution of dust mass and extinction in the general galaxy
population, and we discuss their implications for the use of supernovae
in studying the evolution of the dark energy contribution to the
expansion of the Universe. We conclude that extinction in the SN host
galaxies is a potentially serious problem.