SIMBAD references

The feasibility of using near-infrared observations to discover supernovae in the nuclear and circumnuclear regions of nearby starburst galaxies is investigated. We provide updated estimates of the intrinsic core-collapse supernova rates in these regions. We discuss the problem of extinction, and present new estimates of the extinction towards 33 supernova remnants in the starburst galaxy M 82. This is done using Hi and H₂ column density measurements. We estimate the molecular to atomic hydrogen mass ratio to be 7.4±1.0 in M 82. We have assembled near-infrared photometric data for a total of 13 core-collapse supernovae, some unpublished hitherto. This constitutes the largest database of infrared light curves for such events. We show that the infrared light curves fall into two classes, `ordinary' and `slowly declining'. Template JHKL light curves are derived for both classes. For ordinary core-collapse supernovae, the average peak JHKL absolute magnitudes are -18.4, -18.6, -18.6 and -19.0 respectively. The slowly declining core-collapse supernovae are found to be significantly more luminous than the ordinary events, even at early times, having average peak JHKL absolute magnitudes of -19.9, -20.0, -20.0 and -20.4 respectively. We investigate the efficiency of a computerized image subtraction method in supernova detection. We then carry out a Monte Carlo simulation of a supernova search using K-band images of NGC 5962. The effects of extinction and observing strategy are discussed. We conclude that a modest observational programme will be able to discover a number of nuclear supernovae.