The Hubble constant from two sibling Type Ia supernovae in the nearby galaxy NGC 4414: SN 1974G and SN 2021J

Abstract

Having two “sibling” Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the same galaxy offers additional advantages in reducing a variety of systematic errors involved in estimating the Hubble constant, H0. NGC 4414 is a nearby galaxy included in the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to measure its distance using Cepheid variables. It hosts two sibling SNe Ia: SN 2021J and SN 1974G. This provides the opportunity to improve the precision of the previous estimate of H0, which was based solely on SN 1974G. Here we present new optical BVRI photometry obtained at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada and complement it with Swift UVOT UBV data, which cover the first 70 days of emission of SN 2021J. A first look at SN 2021J optical spectra obtained with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) reveals typical SN type Ia features. The main SN luminosity parameters for the two sibling SNe are obtained by using SNooPy, a light curve fitting code based on templates. Using a hierarchical bayesian approach, we build the Hubble diagram with a sample of 96 SNe Ia obtained from the Combined Pantheon Sample in the redshift range z = 0.02 − 0.075, and calibrate the zero point with the two sibling type-Ia SNe in NGC 4414. We report a value of the Hubble constant H0 = 72.19 ± 2.32 (stat.) ±3.42 (syst.) km s−1 Mpc−1. We expect a reduction of the systematic error after a new analysis of the Cepheids period-luminosity relation using the upcoming Gaia DR4 and additional Cepheids from the HST and JWST.