An increasing number of so-called superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are discovered. It is believed that at least some of them with slowly fading light curves originate in stellar explosions induced by ...the pair instability mechanism. Recent stellar evolution models naturally predict pair instability supernovae (PISNe) from very massive stars at wide range of metallicities (up to Z = 0.006, Yusof et al.). In the scope of this study, we analyse whether PISN models can match the observational properties of SLSNe with various light-curve shapes. Specifically, we explore the influence of different degrees of macroscopic chemical mixing in PISN explosive products on the resulting observational properties. We artificially apply mixing to the 250 M⊙ PISN evolutionary model from Kozyreva et al. and explore its supernova evolution with the one-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics code stella. The greatest success in matching SLSN observations is achieved in the case of an extreme macroscopic mixing, where all radioactive material is ejected into the hydrogen–helium outer layer. Such an extreme macroscopic redistribution of chemicals produces events with faster light curves with high photospheric temperatures and high photospheric velocities. These properties fit a wider range of SLSNe than non-mixed PISN model. Our mixed models match the light curves, colour temperature, and photospheric velocity evolution of two well-observed SLSNe PTF12dam and LSQ12dlf. However, these models’ extreme chemical redistribution may be hard to realize in massive PISNe. Therefore, alternative models such as the magnetar mechanism or wind-interaction may still to be favourable to interpret rapidly rising SLSNe.
The extremely luminous supernova SN 2006gy (ref. 1) challenges the traditional view that the collapse of a stellar core is the only mechanism by which a massive star makes a supernova, because it ...seems too luminous by more than a factor of ten. Here we report that the brightest supernovae in the modern Universe arise from collisions between shells of matter ejected by massive stars that undergo an interior instability arising from the production of electron-positron pairs. This 'pair instability' leads to explosive burning that is insufficient to unbind the star, but ejects many solar masses of the envelope. After the first explosion, the remaining core contracts and searches for a stable burning state. When the next explosion occurs, several solar masses of material are again ejected, which collide with the earlier ejecta. This collision can radiate 1050 erg of light, about a factor of ten more than an ordinary supernova. Our model is in good agreement with the observed light curve for SN 2006gy and also shows that some massive stars can produce more than one supernova-like outburst.
Recent discoveries of weak and fast optical transients raise the question of their origin. We investigate the minimum ejecta mass associated with core-collapse supernovae (SNe) of Type Ic. We show ...that mass transfer from a helium star to a compact companion can produce an ultra-stripped core which undergoes iron core collapse and leads to an extremely fast and faint SN Ic. In this Letter, a detailed example is presented in which the pre-SN stellar mass is barely above the Chandrasekhar limit, resulting in the ejection of only ~0.05-0.20 M sub(middot in circle) of material and the formation of a low-mass neutron star (NS). We compute synthetic light curves of this case and demonstrate that SN 2005ek could be explained by our model. We estimate that the fraction of such ultra-stripped to all SNe could be as high as 10 super(?3)-10 super(?2). Finally, we argue that the second explosion in some double NS systems (for example, the double pulsar PSR J0737?3039B) was likely associated with an ultra-stripped SN Ic.
ABSTRACT
We report the discovery of a nearby massive white dwarf with He–H atmosphere. The white dwarf is located at a distance of 74.5 ± 0.9 pc. Its radius, mass, effective temperature, H/He ratio, ...and age are R = 2500 ± 100 km, M = 1.33 ± 0.01 $\rm M_{\odot }$, Teff = 31 200 ± 1200 K, H/He ∼ 0.1, and 330 ± 40 Myr, respectively. The observed spectrum is redshifted by Vr = +240 ± 15 km s−1, which is mostly attributed to the gravitational redshift. The white dwarf shows a regular stable photometric variability with amplitude Δg ≈ 0.06m and period P = 353.456 s suggesting rapid rotation. This massive, hot, and rapidly rotating white dwarf is likely to originate from the merging of close binary white dwarf system that avoided explosion in a thermonuclear Type Ia supernova.
The rise-time of Type II supernovae González-Gaitán, S; Tominaga, N; Molina, J ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
08/2015, Letnik:
451, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We investigate the early-time light curves of a large sample of 223 Type II supernovae (SNe II) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Supernova Legacy Survey. Having a cadence of a few days and ...sufficient non-detections prior to explosion, we constrain rise-times, i.e. the durations from estimated first to maximum light, as a function of effective wavelength. At rest-frame g
′ band (λeff = 4722 Å), we find a distribution of fast rise-times with median of (7.5 ± 0.3) d. Comparing these durations with analytical shock models of Rabinak & Waxman and Nakar & Sari, and hydrodynamical models of Tominaga et al., which are mostly sensitive to progenitor radius at these epochs, we find a median characteristic radius of less than 400 solar radii. The inferred radii are on average much smaller than the radii obtained for observed red supergiants (RSG). Investigating the post-maximum slopes as a function of effective wavelength in the light of theoretical models, we find that massive hydrogen envelopes are still needed to explain the plateaus of SNe II. We therefore argue that the SN II rise-times we observe are either (a) the shock cooling resulting from the core collapse of RSG with small and dense envelopes, or (b) the delayed and prolonged shock breakout of the collapse of an RSG with an extended atmosphere or embedded within pre-SN circumstellar material.
Context. So-called superluminous supernovae have been recently discovered in the local Universe. It appears possible that some of them originate in stellar explosions induced by the pair instability ...mechanism. Recent stellar evolution models also predict pair instability supernovae from very massive stars at fairly high metallicities (i.e., Z ~ 0.004). Aims. We provide supernova models and synthetic light curves for two progenitor models, a 150 M⊙ red supergiant and a 250 M⊙ yellow supergiant at a metallicity of Z = 0.001, for which the evolution from the main sequence to collapse and the initiation of the pair instability supernova itself has been previously computed in a realistic and self-consistent way. Methods. We use the radiation hydrodynamics code STELLA to describe the supernova evolution of both models in a time frame of about 500 days. Results. We describe the shock-breakout phases of both supernovae, which are characterized by higher luminosity, longer duration, and a lower effective temperature than those of ordinary Type IIP supernovae. We derive the bolometric, as well as the U, B, V, R, and I, light curves of our pair instability supernova models, which show a long-lasting plateau phase with maxima at Mbol ≃ −19.3 mag and −21.3 mag for our lower and higher mass models, respectively. While we do not produce synthetic spectra, we also describe the photospheric composition and velocity as a function of time. Conclusions. We conclude that the light curve of the explosion of our initially 150 M⊙ star resembles those of relatively bright type IIP supernovae, whereas its photospheric velocity at early times is somewhat lower. Its 56Ni mass of 0.04 M⊙ also falls well into the range found in ordinary core collapse supernovae. The light curve and photospheric velocity of our 250 M⊙ models has a striking resemblance to that of the superluminous SN 2007bi, strengthening its interpretation as pair instability supernova. We conclude that pair instability supernovae may occur more frequently in the local universe than previously assumed.
Abstract
Upcoming high-cadence transient survey programmes will produce a wealth of observational data for Type Ia supernovae. These data sets will contain numerous events detected very early in ...their evolution, shortly after explosion. Here, we present synthetic light curves, calculated with the radiation hydrodynamical approach Stella for a number of different explosion models, specifically focusing on these first few days after explosion. We show that overall the early light curve evolution is similar for most of the investigated models. Characteristic imprints are induced by radioactive material located close to the surface. However, these are very similar to the signatures expected from ejecta–CSM or ejecta–companion interaction. Apart from the pure deflagration explosion models, none of our synthetic light curves exhibit the commonly assumed power-law rise. We demonstrate that this can lead to substantial errors in the determination of the time of explosion. In summary, we illustrate with our calculations that even with very early data an identification of specific explosion scenarios is challenging, if only photometric observations are available.
We investigate the consequences of fairly normal Type Ia supernovae being embedded in compact and dense envelopes of carbon- and oxygen-rich circumstellar material by means of detailed radiation ...hydrodynamic simulations. Our main focus rests on exploring the effects of the interaction between ejecta and circumstellar material on the ejecta evolution and the broad-band light curve. In our calculations, we find that a strong reverse shock efficiently decelerates and compresses the ejecta material. This leads to a significant broadening of the optical light curve, a longer rise to maximum and a slower decline in the tail phase. During the interaction, substantial radiative energy is generated, which mostly emerges in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray regime. Only if reprocessing due to radiation-matter interactions is very efficient, a significant boost in the optical light curve is observed. We discuss these findings in particular in the context of the superluminous event SN 2009dc. As our calculations are able to reproduce a number of its peculiar properties, we conclude that the flavour of the interaction scenario investigated in this work constitutes a promising candidate to explain such 'Super-Chandrasekhar' supernovae.
We describe our modelling of the radiatively cooling shocks and their thin shells with various numerical tools in different physical and calculational setups. We inspect structure of the dense shell, ...its formation and evolution, pointing out physical and numerical factors that sustain its shape and also may lead to instabilities. We have found that under certain physical conditions, the circular shaped shells show a strong bending instability and successive fragmentation on Cartesian grids soon after their formation, while remain almost unperturbed when simulated on polar meshes. We explain this by physical Rayleigh–Taylor-like instabilities triggered by corrugation of the dense shell surfaces by numerical noise. Conditions for these instabilities follow from both the shell structure itself and from episodes of transient acceleration during re-establishing of dynamical pressure balance after sudden radiative cooling onset. They are also easily excited by physical perturbations of the ambient medium. The widely mentioned non-linear thin shell instability, in contrast, in tests with physical perturbations is shown to have only limited chances to develop in real radiative shocks, as it seems to require a special spatial arrangement of fluctuations to be excited efficiently. The described phenomena also set new requirements on further simulations of the radiatively cooling shocks in order to be physically correct and free of numerical artefacts.
A simulation of the thermonuclear explosion of a Chandrasekhar-mass C+O white dwarf, the most popular scenario of a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), is presented. The underlying modeling is pursued in a ...self-consistent way, treating the combustion wave as a turbulent deflagration using well tested methods developed for laboratory combustion and based on the concept of "large-eddy simulations" (LESs). Such consistency requires to capture the onset of the turbulent cascade on resolved scales. This is achieved by computing the dynamical evolution on a 1024 super(3) moving grid, which resulted in the best-resolved three-dimensional SN Ia simulation carried out thus far, reaching the limits of what can be done on present supercomputers. Consequently, the model has no free parameters other than the initial conditions at the onset of the explosion, and therefore it has considerable predictive power. Our main objective is to determine to which extent such a simulation can account for the observations of normal SNe Ia. Guided by previous simulations with less resolution and a less sophisticated flame model, initial conditions were chosen that yield a reasonably strong explosion and a sufficient amount of radioactive nickel for a bright display. We show that observables are indeed matched to a reasonable degree. In particular, good agreement is found with the light curves of normal SNe Ia. Moreover, the model reproduces the general features of the abundance stratification as inferred from the analysis of spectra. This indicates that it captures the main features of the explosion mechanism of SNe Ia. However, we also show that even a seemingly best-choice pure deflagration model has shortcomings that indicate the need for a different mode of nuclear burning at late times, perhaps the transition to a detonation at low density.
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