The light curves of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are powered by the radioactive decay of 56Ni to 56Co at early times, and the decay of 56Co to 56Fe from ∼60 d after explosion. We examine the evolution ...of the Co iii λ5893 emission complex during the nebular phase for SNe Ia with multiple nebular spectra and show that the line flux follows the square of the mass of 56Co as a function of time. This result indicates both efficient local energy deposition from positrons produced in 56Co decay and long-term stability of the ionization state of the nebula. We compile SN Ia nebular spectra from the literature and present 21 new late-phase spectra of 7 SNe Ia, including SN 2014J. From these we measure the flux in the Co iii λ5893 line and remove its well-behaved time dependence to infer the initial mass of 56Ni (M
Ni) produced in the explosion. We then examine 56Ni yields for different SN Ia ejected masses (M
ej – calculated using the relation between light-curve width and ejected mass) and find that the 56Ni masses of SNe Ia fall into two regimes: for narrow light curves (low stretch s ∼ 0.7–0.9), M
Ni is clustered near M
Ni ≈ 0.4 M⊙ and shows a shallow increase as M
ej increases from ∼1 to 1.4 M⊙; at high stretch, M
ej clusters at the Chandrasekhar mass (1.4 M⊙) while M
Ni spans a broad range from 0.6 to 1.2 M⊙. This could constitute evidence for two distinct SN Ia explosion mechanisms.
Supernovae connected with long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) are hyper-energetic explosions resulting from the collapse of very massive stars (∼40 M , where M is the mass of the Sun) stripped of their ...outer hydrogen and helium envelopes. A very massive progenitor, collapsing to a black hole, was thought to be a requirement for the launch of a GRB. Here we report the results of modelling the spectra and light curve of SN 2006aj (ref. 9), which demonstrate that the supernova had a much smaller explosion energy and ejected much less mass than the other GRB-supernovae, suggesting that it was produced by a star whose initial mass was only ∼20 M . A star of this mass is expected to form a neutron star rather than a black hole when its core collapses. The smaller explosion energy of SN 2006aj is matched by the weakness and softness of GRB 060218 (an X-ray flash), and the weakness of the radio flux of the supernova. Our results indicate that the supernova-GRB connection extends to a much broader range of stellar masses than previously thought, possibly involving different physical mechanisms: a 'collapsar' (ref. 8) for the more massive stars collapsing to a black hole, and magnetic activity of the nascent neutron star for the less massive stars.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to be connected to luminous and energetic supernovae (SNe) called hypernovae (HNe), resulting from the black hole (BH)--forming collapse of massive ...stars. For recent nearby GRBs 060505 and 060614, however, the expected SNe have not been detected. The upper limits to the SN brightness are about 100 times fainter than GRB-associated HNe (GRB-HNe), corresponding to the upper limits to the ejected super(56)Ni masses of M( super(56)Ni) 6 10 super(-3) M SNe with a small amount of super(56)Ni ejection are observed as faint Type II SNe. HNe and faint SNe are thought to be responsible for the formation of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars. In this Letter, a relativistic jet-induced BH-forming explosion of the 40 M star is investigated and hydrodynamic and nucleosynthetic models are presented. These models can explain both GRB-HNe and GRBs without bright SNe in a unified manner. Their connection to EMP stars is also discussed. We suggest that GRBs without bright SNe are likely to synthesize M( super(56)Ni) 6 10 super(-4) to 10 super(-3) M or 610 super(-6) M .
The properties of underluminous Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) of the 91bg subclass have yet to be theoretically understood. Here, we take a closer look at the structure of the dim SN Ia 2005bl. We ...infer the abundance and density profiles needed to reproduce the observed spectral evolution between −6 d and +12.9 d with respect to B maximum. Initially, we assume the density structure of the standard explosion model W7; then we test whether better fits to the observed spectra can be obtained using modified density profiles with different total masses and kinetic energies. Compared to normal SNe Ia, we find a lack of burning products especially in the rapidly expanding outer layers (v≳ 15 000 km s−1). The zone between ∼8500 and 15 000 km s−1 is dominated by oxygen and includes some amount of intermediate-mass elements. At lower velocities, intermediate-mass elements dominate. This holds down to the lowest zones investigated in this work. This fact, together with negligible-to-moderate abundances of Fe-group elements, indicates large-scale incomplete Si burning or explosive O burning, possibly in a detonation at low densities. Consistently with the reduced nucleosynthesis, we find hints of a kinetic energy lower than that of a canonical SN Ia: the spectra strongly favour reduced densities at ≳13 000 km s−1 compared to W7, and are very well fitted using a rescaled W7 model with original mass (1.38 M⊙), but a kinetic energy reduced by ∼30 per cent (i.e. from 1.33 × 1051 to 0.93 × 1051 erg).
ABSTRACT We present new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) multi-epoch ultraviolet (UV) spectra of the bright Type IIb SN 2013df, and undertake a comprehensive analysis of the set of four SNe IIb for which ...HST UV spectra are available (SN 1993J, SN 2001ig, SN 2011dh, and SN 2013df). We find strong diversity in both continuum levels and line features among these objects. We use radiative-transfer models that fit the optical part of the spectrum well, and find that in three of these four events we see a UV continuum flux excess, apparently unaffected by line absorption. We hypothesize that this emission originates above the photosphere, and is related to interaction with circumstellar material (CSM) located in close proximity to the SN progenitor. In contrast, the spectra of SN 2001ig are well fit by single-temperature models, display weak continuum and strong reverse-fluorescence features, and are similar to spectra of radioactive 56Ni-dominated SNe Ia. A comparison of the early shock-cooling components in the observed light curves with the UV continuum levels which we assume trace the strength of CSM interaction suggests that events with slower cooling have stronger CSM emission. The radio emission from events having a prominent UV excess is perhaps consistent with slower blast-wave velocities, as expected if the explosion shock was slowed down by the CSM that is also responsible for the strong UV, but this connection is currently speculative as it is based on only a few events.
The only supernovae (SNe) to show gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or early x-ray emission thus far are overenergetic, broad-lined type Ic SNe (hypernovae, HNe). Recently, SN 2008D has shown several unusual ...features: (i) weak x-ray flash (XRF), (ii) an early, narrow optical peak, (iii) disappearance of the broad lines typical of SN Ic HNe, and (iv) development of helium lines as in SNe Ib. Detailed analysis shows that SN 2008D was not a normal supernova: Its explosion energy (E almost equal to 6x10⁵¹ erg) and ejected mass ~7 times the mass of the Sun (Formula: see text) are intermediate between normal SNe Ibc and HNe. We conclude that SN 2008D was originally a ~30 Formula: see text star. When it collapsed, a black hole formed and a weak, mildly relativistic jet was produced, which caused the XRF. SN 2008D is probably among the weakest explosions that produce relativistic jets. Inner engine activity appears to be present whenever massive stars collapse to black holes.
We study the multi-dimensional geometry of supernova (SN) explosions by means of spectropolarimetric observations of stripped-envelope SNe, i.e., SNe without a hydrogen-rich layer. We perform ...spectropolarimetric observations of two stripped-envelope SNe, Type Ib SN 2009jf and Type Ic SN 2009mi. Both objects show non-zero polarization at the wavelength of the strong lines. They also show a loop in the Stokes Q-U diagram, which indicates a non-axisymmetric, three-dimensional ion distribution in the ejecta. We show that five out of six stripped-envelope SNe, which have been observed spectropolarimetrically so far, show such a loop. This implies that a three-dimensional geometry is common in stripped-envelope SNe. We find that stronger lines tend to show higher polarization. This effect is not related to the geometry, and must be corrected for to compare the polarization of different lines or different objects. Even after the correction, however, there remains a dispersion of polarization degree among different objects. Such a dispersion might be caused by three-dimensional clumpy ion distributions viewed from different directions.
ABSTRACT Photometric and spectroscopic observations of a slowly declining, luminous Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN 2011hr in the starburst galaxy NGC 2691 are presented. SN 2011hr is found to peak at , ...with a postmaximum decline rate Δm15(B) = 0.92 0.03 mag. From the maximum-light bolometric luminosity, , we estimate the mass of synthesized 56Ni in SN 2011hr to be . SN 2011hr appears more luminous than SN 1991T at around maximum light, and the absorption features from its intermediate-mass elements (IMEs) are noticeably weaker than those of the latter at similar phases. Spectral modeling suggests that SN 2011hr has IMEs of ∼0.07 in the outer ejecta, which is much lower than the typical value of normal SNe Ia (i.e., 0.3-0.4 ) and is also lower than the value of SN 1991T (i.e., ∼0.18 ). These results indicate that SN 2011hr may arise from a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf progenitor that experienced a more efficient burning process in the explosion. Nevertheless, it is still possible that SN 2011hr may serve as a transitional object connecting the SN 1991T-like SNe Ia with a superluminous subclass like SN 2007if given that the latter also shows very weak IMEs at all phases.
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