Supernovae in flocculent and grand design spirals

The arm structure of supernovae host galaxies has been studied in order to ascertain whether or not spiral density waves have an impact on supernovae frequencies. The ensembles of Type I and Type II supernovae hosts contain identical fractions of grand design spirals consistent with the representations in control samples chosen without regard to supernovae production. The results suggest that a density wave does not greatly enhance the massive star formation rate per unit luminosity of a galaxy. Instead, star formation in most galaxies may be dominated by stochastic processes. 30 references