TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE STRONGLY INTERACTING WITH THEIR CIRCUMSTELLAR MEDIUM

By J. Silverman, P. Nugent, A. Gal-yam, M. Sullivan, D. Howell, A. Filippenko, I. Arcavi, S. Ben-Ami, Joshua S. Bloom, S. Cenko and 24 more. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2013

188 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Owing to their utility for measurements of cosmic acceleration, Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are perhaps the best-studied class of SNe, yet the progenitor systems of these explosions largely remain a mystery. A rare subclass of SNe Ia shows evidence of strong interaction with their circumstellar medium (CSM), and in particular, a hydrogen-rich CSM; we refer to them as SNe Ia-CSM. In the first systematic search for such systems, we have identified 16 SNe Ia-CSM, and here we present new spectra of 13 of them. Six SNe Ia-CSM have been well studied previously, three were previously known but are analyzed in depth for the first time here, and seven are new discoveries from the Palomar Transient Factory. The spectra of all SNe Ia-CSM are dominated by Hα emission (with widths of ∼2000 km s−1) and exhibit large Hα/Hβ intensity ratios (perhaps due to collisional excitation of hydrogen via the SN ejecta overtaking slower-moving CSM shells); moreover, they have an almost complete lack of He i emission. They also show possible evidence of dust formation through a decrease in the red wing of Hα 75–100 days past maximum brightness, and nearly all SNe Ia-CSM exhibit strong Na i D absorption from the host galaxy. The absolute magnitudes (uncorrected for host-galaxy extinction) of SNe Ia-CSM are found to be −21.3 mag ⩽ MR ⩽ −19 mag, and they also seem to show ultraviolet emission at early times and strong infrared emission at late times (but no detected radio or X-ray emission). Finally, the host galaxies of SNe Ia-CSM are all late-type spirals similar to the Milky Way, or dwarf irregulars like the Large Magellanic Cloud, which implies that these objects come from a relatively young stellar population. This work represents the most detailed analysis of the SN Ia-CSM class to date.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b70cc6eb7a8e29097e2fa0ff4657c0f38226b176

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. A. Filippenko
2. A. Riess
3. S. Jha
4. D. Maoz
5. N. Smith
6. F. Mannucci
7. R. Kirshner
8. Weidong Li

In Instrumentation

1. N. Smith
2. D. Maoz
3. F. Mannucci
4. D. Schneider
5. A. Filippenko
6. Weidong Li
7. A. Riess
8. Robert Nichol

Citations in the corpus

• Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars (2014, background): “This may echo the observation that some SNe IIn appear to be caused by an underlying thermonculaer Type Ia interacting with dense CSM (Silverman et al. 2013).”
• A CONTINUUM OF H- TO He-RICH TIDAL DISRUPTION CANDIDATES WITH A PREFERENCE FOR E+A GALAXIES (2014, background): “…all Type IIn events (SNe showing narrow emission lines, e.g. Schlegel et al. 1990; Kiewe et al. 2012) and Ia-CSM events (e.g. Hamuy et al. 2003; Silverman et al. 2013), known to extend into this magnitude range (e.g. Stoll et al. 2011) likely due to emission powered by interaction with a dense…”
• Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2013, background): “Silverman et al. (2013b) have compiled a sample of 16 such strongly CSM-interacting events, some by re-classifying old events (one of them, SN 2008J, was concurrently studied by Taddia et al. 2012) and some from new discoveries from the PTF survey.”
• The Carnegie Supernova Project. I. Third Photometry Data Release of Low-redshift Type Ia Supernovae and Other White Dwarf Explosions (2017, methodology): “Two other events (SN2005gj and SN 2008J) belong to the rare TypeIa-CSM subtype (Silverman et al. 2013).”
• Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae (2016, unknown): “5), and became dominated by CSM interaction later on (Silverman et al. 2013b; Fig.”
• Luminous blue variables are antisocial: their isolation implies that they are kicked mass gainers in binary evolution (2014, background): “…SNe IIn-P and possibly the Crab Nebula; Mauerhan et al. 2013; Smith 2013; Chugai et al. 2004a), and (3) some hybrid Type Ia/IIn events that are apparently thermonuclear SNe Ia exploding in a dense H-rich CSM, like SN 2002ic and several similar objects (Chugai et al. 2004b; Silverman et al. 2013).”
• Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples (2014, background): “…evolution of the effective dust extinction law due to a mixture of intrinsic color variation, circumstellar dust, and extinction in the interstellar medium of the SNe host galaxies (Amanullah & Goobar 2011; Silverman et al. 2013; Maguire et al. 2013; Johansson et al. 2013a; Phillips et al. 2013).”