Using Rest-Frame Optical and NIR Data from the RAISIN Survey to Explore the Redshift Evolution of Dust Laws in SN Ia Host Galaxies

Abstract

We use rest-frame optical and near-infrared (NIR) observations of 42 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the Carnegie Supernova Project at low-$z$ and 37 from the RAISIN Survey at high-$z$ to investigate correlations between SN Ia host galaxy dust, host mass, and redshift. This is the first time the SN Ia host galaxy dust extinction law at high-$z$ has been estimated using combined optical and rest-frame NIR data ($YJ$-band). We use the BayeSN hierarchical model to leverage the data's wide rest-frame wavelength range (extending to $\sim$1.0-1.2 microns for the RAISIN sample at $0.2\lesssim z\lesssim0.6$). By contrasting the RAISIN and CSP data, we constrain the population distributions of the host dust $R_V$ parameter for both redshift ranges. We place a limit on the difference in population mean $R_V$ between RAISIN and CSP of $-1.16<\Delta\mu(R_V)<1.38$ with 95% posterior probability. For RAISIN we estimate $\mu(R_V)=2.58\pm0.57$, and constrain the population standard deviation to $\sigma(R_V)<0.90~[2.42]$ at the 68 [95]% level. Given that we are only able to constrain the size of the low- to high-$z$ shift in $\mu(R_V)$ to $\lesssim1.4$ - which could still propagate to a substantial bias in the equation of state parameter $w$ - these and other recent results motivate continued effort to obtain rest-frame NIR data at low and high redshifts (e.g. using the Roman Space Telescope).