Hubble Space Telescope spectra of the type Ia supernova SN 2011fe: a tail of low-density, high-velocity material with Z < Z⊙

By P. Mazzali, M. Sullivan, Stephan Hachinger, Richard S. Ellis, P. Nugent, D. Howell, A. Gal-yam, K. Maguire, J. Cooke, R. Thomas and 2 more. 2013

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Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic observations of the nearby Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN 2011fe, taken on 10 epochs from −13.1 to +40.8 d relative to B-band maximum light, and spanning the far-ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (IR) are presented. This spectroscopic coverage makes SN 2011fe the best-studied local SN Ia to date. SN 2011fe is a typical moderately luminous SN Ia with no evidence for dust extinction. Its near-UV spectral properties are representative of a larger sample of local events (Maguire et al.). The near-UV to optical spectra of SN 2011fe are modelled with a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code using the technique of ‘abundance tomography’, constraining the density structure and the abundance stratification in the SN ejecta. SN 2011fe was a relatively weak explosion, with moderate Fe-group yields. The density structures of the classical model W7 and of a delayed detonation model were tested. Both have shortcomings. An ad hoc density distribution was developed which yields improved fits and is characterized by a high-velocity tail, which is absent in W7. However, this tail contains less mass than delayed detonation models. This improved model has a lower energy than one-dimensional explosion models matching typical SNe Ia (e.g. W7, WDD1; Iwamoto et al.). The derived Fe abundance in the outermost layer is consistent with the metallicity at the SN explosion site in M101 (∼0.5 Z_⊙). The spectroscopic rise-time (∼19 d) is significantly longer than that measured from the early optical light curve, implying a ‘dark phase’ of ∼1 d. A longer rise-time has significant implications when deducing the properties of the white dwarf and binary system from the early photometric behaviour.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/27526a5c71a56434be540f55b13a14d0207a5577

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Citations in the corpus

On the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2018, unknown): “(5) In the case of the well-studied, relatively nearby SN 2011fe, it was found that the fastest moving ejecta (at almost 20,000 km s−1) were composed almost exclusively of carbon (Mazzali et al. 2014).”
An Open Catalog for Supernova Data (2016, background): “…SN 2011fe (Nugent et al. 2011; Richmond & Smith 2012; Parrent et al. 2012; Matheson et al. 2012; Vinkó et al. 2012; Maguire et al. 2012; Pereira et al. 2013; Mazzali et al. 2014; Maguire et al. 2014; Mazzali et al. 2015; Taubenberger et al. 2015; Graham et al. 2015; Smitka et al. 2016).”