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Strong Calcium Emission Indicates that the Ultraviolet-flashing SN Ia 2019yvq Was the Result of a Sub-Chandrasekar-mass Double-detonation Explosion

Siebert, Matthew R. and Dimitriadis, Georgios and Polin, Abigail and Foley, Ryan J. (2020) Strong Calcium Emission Indicates that the Ultraviolet-flashing SN Ia 2019yvq Was the Result of a Sub-Chandrasekar-mass Double-detonation Explosion. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 900 (2). Art. No. L27. ISSN 2041-8213. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abae6e. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200911-133135458

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Abstract

We present nebular spectra of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN 2019yvq, which had a bright flash of blue and ultraviolet light after exploding, followed by a rise similar to other SNe Ia. Although SN 2019yvq displayed several other rare characteristics, such as persistent high ejecta velocity near peak brightness, it was not especially peculiar, and if the early "excess" emission were not observed, it would likely be included in cosmological samples. The excess flux can be explained by several different physical models linked to the details of the progenitor system and explosion mechanism. Each has unique predictions for the optically thin emission at late times. In our nebular spectra, we detect strong [Ca ii] λλ7291, 7324 and Ca near-IR triplet emission, consistent with a double-detonation explosion. We do not detect H, He, or [O i] emission, predictions for some single-degenerate progenitor systems and violent white dwarf mergers. The amount of swept-up H or He is < 2.8 × 10⁻⁴ and 2.4 × 10⁻⁴ M_⊙, respectively. Aside from strong Ca emission, the SN 2019yvq nebular spectrum is similar to those of typical SNe Ia with the same light-curve shape. Comparing to double-detonation models, we find that the Ca emission is consistent with a model with a total progenitor mass of 1.15 M_⊙. However, we note that a lower progenitor mass better explains the early light-curve and peak luminosity. The unique properties of SN 2019yvq suggest that thick He-shell double detonations only account for 1.1_(-1.1)^(+2.1)% of the total "normal" SN Ia rate. The SN 2019yvq is one of the best examples yet that multiple progenitor channels appear necessary to reproduce the full diversity of "normal" SNe Ia.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abae6eDOIArticle
https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.13793arXivDiscussion Paper
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Dimitriadis, Georgios0000-0001-9494-179X
Polin, Abigail0000-0002-1633-6495
Additional Information:© 2020. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 2020 July 24; revised 2020 August 7; accepted 2020 August 12; published 2020 September 4. M.R.S. is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant No. 1842400. The UCSC team is supported in part by NASA grant NNG17PX03C, NSF grant AST-1815935, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to R.J.F. The Computational HEP program in the Department of Energy's Science Office of High Energy Physics provided resources through grant No. KA2401022. Calculations presented in this paper used the resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. We thank Elena Manjavacas and Lucas Fuhrman for assistance with these observations. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. Facility: Keck:I (LRIS). - Software: astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013), kaepora (Siebert et al. 2019), Castro (Almgren et al. 2010), Sedona (Kasen et al. 2006), SedoNeb (Botyánszki & Kasen 2017).
Group:TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NSF Graduate Research FellowshipDGE-1842400
NASANNG17PX03C
NSFAST-1815935
Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Heising-Simons FoundationUNSPECIFIED
David and Lucile Packard FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Department of Energy (DOE)KA2401022
Department of Energy (DOE)DE-AC02-05CH11231
W. M. Keck FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Subject Keywords:Supernovae ; Observational astronomy ; White dwarf stars ; Type Ia supernovae
Issue or Number:2
Classification Code:Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Supernovae (1668); Observational astronomy (1145); White dwarf stars (1799); Type Ia supernovae (1728)
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/abae6e
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20200911-133135458
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200911-133135458
Official Citation:Matthew R. Siebert et al 2020 ApJL 900 L27
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:105338
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: George Porter
Deposited On:15 Sep 2020 14:15
Last Modified:16 Nov 2021 18:42

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