ZTF 18aaqeasu (SN2018byg): A Massive Helium-shell Double Detonation on a Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf

Creators: De, Kishalay; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Polin, Abigail; Nugent, P. E.; Bildsten, Lars; Adams, Scott M.; Bellm, Eric C.; Blagorodnova, N.; Burdge, Kevin B.; Cannella, Christopher; Cenko, S. B.; Dekany, Richard; Feeney, Michael; Hale, David; Fremling, U. Christoffer; Graham, Matthew J.; Ho, Anna Y. Q.; Jencson, Jacob E.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Laher, Russ R.; Masci, Frank J.; Miller, Adam A.; Patterson, Maria T.; Rebbapragada, Umaa; Riddle, Reed L.; Shupe, D. L.; Smith, Roger M.

Abstract

The detonation of a helium shell on a white dwarf (WD) has been proposed as a possible explosion triggering mechanism for SNe Ia. Here, we report ZTF 18aaqeasu (SN 2018byg/ATLAS 18pqq), a peculiar Type I supernova, consistent with being a helium-shell double-detonation. With a rise time of ≈18 days from explosion, the transient reached a peak absolute magnitude of M_R ≈ −18.2 mag, exhibiting a light curve akin to sub-luminous SN 1991bg-like SNe Ia, albeit with an unusually steep increase in brightness within a week from explosion. Spectra taken near peak light exhibit prominent Si absorption features together with an unusually red color (g − r ≈ 2 mag) arising from nearly complete line blanketing of flux blueward of 5000 Å. This behavior is unlike any previously observed thermonuclear transient. Nebular phase spectra taken at and after ≈30 days from peak light reveal evidence of a thermonuclear detonation event dominated by Fe-group nucleosynthesis. We show that the peculiar properties of ZTF 18aaqeasu are consistent with the detonation of a massive (≈0.15 M⊙) helium shell on a sub-Chandrasekhar mass (≈0.75 M⊙) WD after including mixing of ≈0.2 M⊙ of material in the outer ejecta. These observations provide evidence of a likely rare class of thermonuclear supernovae arising from detonations of massive helium shells.

Additional Information

© 2019 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2018 November 21; revised 2019 February 14; accepted 2019 February 23; published 2019 March 14. This work was supported by the GROWTH project funded by the National Science Foundation under PIRE grant No. 1545949. This research benefited from interactions at a ZTF Theory Network meeting, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF5076. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Alert distribution is provided by DIRAC@UW (Patterson et al. 2019). We thank the anonymous referee for providing valuable comments that helped improve the content of this Letter. We thank Markus Kromer and Stuart Sim for providing their model data for comparisons. We thank A. Goobar, A. Gal-Yam, E. O. Ofek, J. Fuller, T. Kupfer, and A. V. Filippenko for valuable discussions. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Some of 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. 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. These results made use of the Discovery Channel Telescope at Lowell Observatory. Lowell is a private, non-profit institution dedicated to astrophysical research and public appreciation of astronomy and operates the DCT in partnership with Boston University, the University of Maryland, the University of Toledo, Northern Arizona University and Yale University. The upgrade of the DeVeny optical spectrograph has been funded by a generous grant from John and Ginger Giovale. The SED Machine is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 1106171.

Attached Files

Published - De_2019_ApJL_873_L18.pdf

Submitted - 1901.00874.pdf

Files

De_2019_ApJL_873_L18.pdf

Files (3.4 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
De_2019_ApJL_873_L18.pdf md5:da8ec05cc1ac72627c5c781cbb0364d7	1.8 MB	Preview Download
1901.00874.pdf md5:d33fb2fc7569d04817b7dcf7f705764e	1.5 MB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes