We present a detailed analysis of an extragalactic slow classical nova in M31 exhibiting multiple peaks in its light curve. Spectroscopic and photometric observations were used to investigate the underlying physical processes. Shock-induced heating events resulting in the expansion and contraction of the photosphere are likely responsible for the observed multiple peaks. Deviation of the observed spectrum at the peak from the models also suggests the presence of shocks. The successive peaks occurring at increasing intervals could be due to the series of internal shocks generated near or within the photosphere. Spectral modeling suggests a low-mass white dwarf (WD) accreting slowly from a companion star. The ejecta mass, estimated from spectral analysis, is ~10−4 M⊙, which is typical for a slow nova. We estimate the binary, by comparing the archival Hubble Space Telescope data and eruption properties with stellar and nova models, to comprise a 0.65 M⊙ primary WD and a K iii cool evolved secondary star.
Discovery and Detailed Study of the M31 Classical Nova AT 2023tkw: Evidence for Internal Shocks
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2025. 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.
Acknowledgement
The GROWTH-India telescope (GIT) is a 70 cm telescope with a 0.7° field of view set up by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) with funding from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum and the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO, Hanle). We acknowledge funding by the IITB alumni batch of 1994, which partially supports the operation of the telescope. Telescope technical details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/growthindia/.
Some of the observations reported in this paper were obtained with the 2 m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT). The facilities at IAO and CREST are operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru.
The ZTF forced-photometry service was funded under the Heising–Simons Foundation grant No. 12540303 (PI: Graham).
This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA; https://archive.stsci.edu/publishing/data-use), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with the program GO-16796.
The HST data described in Section 5.2 are located at the MAST: 10.17909/b4vg-pa17.
This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Center at the University of Leicester.
G.C.A. thanks the Indian National Science Academy for support under the INSA Senior Scientist Program.
The authors acknowledge the fruitful discussions with Prof. Ariel Goobar during the discovery of the object.
The authors thank the referee for their insightful comments and suggestions, which improved the content of the paper.
Facilities
GIT, HCT, HST, Keck:I, Keck:II, Hale, PO:1.2m - .
Software References
IRAF v2.16.1 (D. Tody 1993), Python v3.6.6 (G. Van Rossum & F. L. Drake 2009), NumPy (C. R. Harris et al. 2020), SciPy (P. Virtanen et al. 2020), Astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018; Astropy Collaboration et al. 2022), Pandas (W. McKinney et al. 2010), Matplotlib (J. D. Hunter 2007), Spalipy (J. D. Lyman 2021), extinction (K. Barbary 2021), photutils (L. Bradley et al. 2023), SWarp (E. Bertin 2010), SAOImageDS 9 (W. A. Joye & E. Mandel 2003), SExtractor (E. Bertin & S. Arnouts 1996).
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:352907d13c795222db53ad0621a2c786
|
1.3 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
- Science and Engineering Research Board
- Department of Science and Technology
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- 12540303
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NAS 5-26555
- Indian National Science Academy
- INSA Senior Scientist Program -
- Accepted
-
2025-01-02Accepted
- Available
-
2025-02-07Published
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department
- Publication Status
- Published