The Extinction Law in SN Ia Hosts from Background Galaxy Measurements: Toward a 1% Determination of $H_0$

Abstract

In the most precise distance ladder determination of $H_0$, the observed near-infrared (NIR) fluxes of Cepheids are corrected for dust, assuming that the extinction law in large, star-forming spiral hosts of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) is similar to the Milky Way's average value of $R_V \approx 3.1$. Intriguingly, studies of SNe Ia often point to lower values for their hosts ($R_V \sim 2$). Ambiguities related to $R_V$ may limit future efforts to measure $H_0$ beyond $\sim 1\%$ precision. To better resolve extragalactic extinction laws, we directly measure the wavelength-dependent absorption of background galaxies seen in HST and JWST images (0.5--2.7 $\mu$m). We take the following steps: (i) subtract foreground stars to measure accurate photometry of background galaxies with a tool, $\texttt{SPHOT}$; (ii) measure their redshifts and spectroscopic features with Keck/DEIMOS; (iii) determine their intrinsic spectral energy distributions from the empirical templates which match the absorption lines and breaks in observed spectroscopic features, and (iv) measure $R_V$ by fitting the extinction model to the difference between the template and the observed SEDs. The above steps are tested with artificial datasets to insure they accurately recover the input $R_V$. We apply this set of steps to a first case, NGC 5584, a SN Ia host and a calibrator of the Hubble constant. The estimated value of $R_V$ for NGC 5584, $R_V=3.59^{+0.99}_{-0.62}(\text{stat})\pm0.19(\text{syst})$, is consistent with the MW-like extinction law, and it is $\gtrsim 3.5\sigma$ away from $R_V=2$ as favored by SN Ia. If additional hosts show similar results, it would suggest that SN Ia extinction may not be solely due to mean interstellar dust. We are now undertaking a statistical study of 5-10 SH0ES hosts to determine the distribution of host extinction laws.