Using Host Galaxy Photometric Redshifts to Improve Cosmological Constraints with Type Ia Supernovae in the LSST Era

We perform a rigorous cosmology analysis on simulated Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and evaluate the improvement from including photometric host galaxy redshifts compared to using only the z (spec) subset with spectroscopic redshifts from the host or SN. We use the Deep Drilling Fields (similar to 50 deg(2)) from the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time-Series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC) in combination with a low-z sample based on Data Challenge2. The analysis includes light-curve fitting to standardize the SN brightness, a high-statistics simulation to obtain a bias-corrected Hubble diagram, a statistical+systematics covariance matrix including calibration and photo-z uncertainties, and cosmology fitting with a prior from the cosmic microwave background. Compared to using the z (spec) subset, including events with SN+host photo-z results in (i) more precise distances for z > 0.5, (ii) a Hubble diagram that extends 0.3 further in redshift, and (iii) a 50% increase in the Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit (FoM) based on the w (0) w a CDM model. Analyzing 25 simulated data samples, the average bias on w (0) and w ( a ) is consistent with zero. The host photo-z systematic of 0.01 reduces FoM by only 2% because (i) most z < 0.5 events are in the z (spec) subset, (ii) the combined SN+host photo-z has x2 smaller bias, and (iii) the anticorrelation between fitted redshift and color self-corrects distance errors. To prepare for analyzing real data, the next SN Ia cosmology analysis with photo-zs should include non-SN Ia contamination and host galaxy misassociations.

Automated summary

We conducted a cosmology analysis on simulated Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to evaluate the improvement by including photometric host galaxy redshifts compared to spectroscopic redshifts. The analysis included light-curve fitting, simulation for bias correction, and cosmology fitting. Including events with SN+host photo-z resulted in more precise distances, extended redshift range in the Hubble diagram, and increased figure of merit for dark energy. The average bias on cosmological parameters was consistent with zero.