SNOC: a Monte-Carlo simulation package for high-z supernova observations

Abstract

We present a Monte-Carlo package for simulation of high-redshift supernova data, SNOC. Optical and near-infrared photons from supernovae are ray-traced over cosmological distances from the simulated host galaxy to the observer at Earth. The distances to the sources are calculated from user provided cosmological parameters in a Friedmann-Lemaitre universe, allowing for arbitrary forms of ``dark energy''. The code takes into account gravitational interactions (lensing) and extinction by dust, both in the host galaxy and in the line-of-sight. The user can also choose to include exotic effects like a hypothetical attenuation due to photon-axion oscillations. SNOC is primarily useful for estimations of cosmological parameter uncertainties from studies of apparent brightness of Type Ia supernovae vs redshift, with special emphasis on potential systematic effects. It can also be used to compute standard cosmological quantities like luminosity distance, lookback time and age of the universe in any Friedmann-Lemaitre model with or without quintessence.