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We have analysed multiband light curves of 328 intermediate-redshift (0.05 ≤ z < 0.24) Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey. The multiband light curves were parametrized by using the multiband stretch method, which can simply parametrize light-curve shapes and peak brightness without dust extinction models. We found that most of the SNe Ia that appeared in red host galaxies (u - r > 2.5) do not have a broad light-curve width and the SNe Ia that appeared in blue host galaxies (u - r < 2.0) have a variety of light-curve widths. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test shows that the colour distribution of SNe Ia appearing in red/blue host galaxies is different (a significance level of 99.9 per cent). We also investigate the extinction law of host galaxy dust. As a result, we find that the value of Rv derived from SNe Ia with medium light-curve widths is consistent with the standard Galactic value, whereas the value of Rv derived from SNe Ia that appear in red host galaxies becomes significantly smaller. These results indicate that there may be two types of SNe Ia with different intrinsic colours, and that they are obscured by host galaxy dust with two different properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We create new U-, B-, V-, R- and I-band light-curve templates of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and re-analyse 122 nearby (redshift < 0.11) SNe Ia using a new ‘Multiband Stretch method’, which is a revised Stretch method extended to five bands. We find (i) our I-band template can fit about 90 per cent of SNe Ia I-band light curves, (ii) relationships between luminosity, colours and stretch factors, (iii) possible subgroups of SNe Ia and (iv) the ratio of total to selective extinction R in other galaxies can be consistent with that in the Milky Way under the assumption that SNe Ia have diversity in their intrinsic colour. Based on these results, we discuss how to select subsets of SNe Ia to serve as good distance indicators for cosmology. We find two possibilities: one is to choose ‘BV bluest’[ ] objects and the other is to use only SNe Ia which occur in E or S0 galaxies. Within these subsets, we find the root mean square (rms) of peak B-band magnitudes is 0.17 mag (‘BV bluest’ sample) and 0.12 mag (E or S0 sample). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous-variable optical quantum information processing, where quantum information is encoded in a traveling wave of light called a flying qubit, is a candidate for a practical quantum computer with high clock frequencies. Homodyne detectors for quadrature-phase amplitude measurements have been the major factor limiting the clock frequency. Here, we developed a real-time amplitude measurement method using a modular optical parametric amplifier (OPA) and a broadband balanced photodiode that is commercially used for coherent wavelength-division multiplexing telecommunication of the fifth-generation mobile communication systems (5G). The OPA amplifies one quadrature-phase component of the quantum-level signal to a loss-tolerant macroscopic level and suppresses the loss after the OPA from 92.4% to only 0.4%. This method was applied to a broadband squeezed vacuum measurement with a center wavelength of 1545.32 nm. In the time-domain measurement, the squeezing level of 5.1 ± 0.1 dB without loss correction was obtained by a real-time oscilloscope with a sampling rate of 160 GHz and an analog bandwidth of 63 GHz. The frequency-domain analysis also shows that a squeezing level of 5.2 ± 0.5 dB is obtained from DC to 43 GHz, which is limited by the balanced detector. This indicates that the proposed method can be easily broadened by using a broader bandwidth measurement instrument. By applying this method, not only can optical quantum computers with high clock frequencies be realized but also multi-core systems can be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]