Spectroscopic and Photometric Studies of Supernovae

首席研究员(PI)是前总统青年研究员，他利用之前获奖的大部分时间设计和建造了一台机器人望远镜，以监测超新星的光输出随时间的变化。PI现在建议用一个协调的高色散光谱计划来补充他的光曲线工作。他的目标是在超新星的分类中建立比过去存在的更大程度的同质性，以便定义这些天体的进化史，以及它们的前身恒星的特征。这项工作将有助于确定容易导致某些类型的超新星的恒星的质量范围。它将对光度等可观测属性的分散性提供新的估计，从而更有信心地将超新星用作“标准蜡烛”，并改善外部星系的距离。

The Principal Investigator (PI) is a previous Presidential Young Investigator who has used much of his previous award to design and build a robotic telescope to monitor the light output of supernovae with time. The PI now proposes to complement his light curve work with a coordinated program of high dispersion spectroscopy. His goal is to establish a far greater degree of homogenity in the classification of supernovae than has existed in the past in order to define the evolutionary histories of these objects, as will as the characteristics of their progenitor stars. This work will help determine the mass ranges of stars that are apt to lead to certain kinds of supernovae. It will provide new estimates of the dispersion of observable properties, such as luminosity, leading to a more confident use of supernovae as "standard candles" and to improved distances of external galaxies.