TYPE Iax SUPERNOVAE: A NEW CLASS OF STELLAR EXPLOSION

By R. Foley, P. Challis, Ryan Chornock, M. Ganeshalingam, Wenbo Li, G. H. Marion, N. Morrell, G. Pignata, M. Stritzinger, J. Silverman and 12 more. 2012

247 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We describe observed properties of the Type Iax class of supernovae (SNe Iax), consisting of SNe observationally similar to its prototypical member, SN 2002cx. The class currently has 25 members, and we present optical photometry and/or optical spectroscopy for most of them. SNe Iax are spectroscopically similar to SNe Ia, but have lower maximum-light velocities (2000 ≲ |v| ≲ 8000 km s−1), typically lower peak magnitudes (−14.2 ⩾ MV, peak ≳ −18.9 mag), and most have hot photospheres. Relative to SNe Ia, SNe Iax have low luminosities for their light-curve shape. There is a correlation between luminosity and light-curve shape, similar to that of SNe Ia, but offset from that of SNe Ia and with larger scatter. Despite a host-galaxy morphology distribution that is highly skewed to late-type galaxies without any SNe Iax discovered in elliptical galaxies, there are several indications that the progenitor stars are white dwarfs (WDs): evidence of C/O burning in their maximum-light spectra, low (typically ∼0.5 M☉) ejecta masses, strong Fe lines in their late-time spectra, a lack of X-ray detections, and deep limits on massive stars and star formation at the SN sites. However, two SNe Iax show strong He lines in their spectra. The progenitor system and explosion model that best fits all of the data is a binary system of a C/O WD that accretes matter from a He star and has a deflagration. At least some of the time, this explosion will not disrupt the WD. The small number of SNe in this class prohibit a detailed analysis of the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the entire class. We estimate that in a given volume there are SNe Iax for every 100 SNe Ia, and for every 1 M☉ of iron generated by SNe Ia at z = 0, SNe Iax generate ∼0.036 M☉. Being the largest class of peculiar SNe, thousands of SNe Iax will be discovered by LSST. Future detailed observations of SNe Iax should further our understanding of both their progenitor systems and explosions as well as those of SNe Ia.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/657a2bbd1c43239dabc5526f00aec09c8e9488a4

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Citations in the corpus

Three Hypervelocity White Dwarfs in Gaia DR2: Evidence for Dynamically Driven Double-degenerate Double-detonation Type Ia Supernovae (2018, background): “We note here that we distinguish between companion WDs that survive normal SNe Ia and the kicked bound WD remnants of explosions that may lead to the peculiar class of SNe Iax (Jordan et al. 2012; Foley et al. 2013; Long et al. 2014; Fink et al. 2014).”
Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples (2014, unknown): “Poor fit, 2002cx-like: SDSS20208 (sn2007qd) (McClelland et al. 2010; Foley et al. 2013).”
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM MEASUREMENTS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE DISCOVERED DURING THE FIRST 1.5 yr OF THE Pan-STARRS1 SURVEY (2013, background): “We specifically exclude SNe of the “Iax” subclass (Foley et al. 2013) from all samples.”
On the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2018, unknown): “(2) SNe which have been dubbed Type Iax, which exhibit lower line velocities than normal SNe Ia and are fainter (e.g., Foley et al. 2013).”
Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2013, background): “Only a few tens of SNe Iax are known, but accounting for their detectability, Foley et al. (2013) estimate that there are ∼ 20−50 such events for every 100 normal SNe Ia, which would make SNe Iax the most common type of peculiar SNe Ia. Jordan et al. (2012), Kromer et al. (2013) and Fink et al.…”
The Carnegie Supernova Project. I. Third Photometry Data Release of Low-redshift Type Ia Supernovae and Other White Dwarf Explosions (2017, methodology): “TypeIax SNe are spectroscopically similar to TypeIa SNe that are more luminous than average because they show high-ionization lines such as FeIII but have lower maximum-light velocities and fainter absolute magnitudes for their light-curve decline rates (Foley et al. 2013).”
RAPIDLY EVOLVING AND LUMINOUS TRANSIENTS FROM PAN-STARRS1 (2014, background): “…are shown as colored circles/squares: type Ia SN (Nugent et al. 2002; Taubenberger et al. 2008; Scalzo et al. 2012), type Iax & “calcium-rich” Ia (Foley et al. 2013; Kasliwal et al. 2012; Perets et al. 2010), type Ib/Ic (Drout et al. 2011; Valenti et al. 2008; Campana et al. 2006; Taubenberger…”
Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae (2016, unknown): “5) show some similarity to normal SNe Ia, but with notably lower expansion velocities (< 8000 km s−1; Foley et al. 2013, White et al. 2015).”
Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Detonations Revisited (2017, background): “Note that we only consider comparisons to “normal” SNe Ia, ranging from SN 1991bg-likes to SN 1991T-likes, and not to the peculiar classes of Carich transients (e.g., Kasliwal et al. 2012) and SNe Iax (e.g., Foley et al. 2013).”
The Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey (2014, background): “The obvious outlier at z = 0.043 is the under-luminous SN2007qd, which was discussed by McClelland et al. (2010) as a possible explosion by pure deflagration (see also, Foley et al. 2013).”
TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA RATE MEASUREMENTS TO REDSHIFT 2.5 FROM CANDELS: SEARCHING FOR PROMPT EXPLOSIONS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE (2014, background): “Ia (Bildsten et al. 2007) or Iax SN (Foley et al. 2013) are well below our detection threshold, and super-luminous SN (Gal-Yam 2012) have an intrinsic rate that is lower than that of normal SN by a factor of about 104 (Quimby et al. 2011).”
THE LICK AGN MONITORING PROJECT 2011: SPECTROSCOPIC CAMPAIGN AND EMISSION-LINE LIGHT CURVES (2015, background): “Observations taken during our program have been included in publications examining the spectral evolution ofSN 2010jl (Smith et al. 2012), SN 2011ay (Foley et al. 2013), SN 2011by (Silverman et al. 2013), and the young stellar object PTF 10nvg (Hillenbrand et al. 2013), and have been described in…”
Three-dimensional pure deflagration models with nucleosynthesis and synthetic observables for type ia supernovae (2013, background): “However, even N1def (MVmax = −16.84 mag) is significantly brighter than SN 2008ha (MVmax =−14.19 mag) the faintest object proposed to be a member of the class (Foley et al. 2009, 2013).”