Surface Radioactivity or Interactions? Multiple Origins of Early-excess Type Ia Supernovae and Associated Subclasses [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1808.06343


Early-phase Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) especially those with luminosity enhancement within the first few days of explosions (“early-excess SNe Ia”) play an irreplaceable role in addressing the long-standing progenitor and explosion issue of SNe Ia. In this paper, we systematically investigate 11 early-excess SNe Ia from subluminous to luminous subclass. Eight of them are selected from 23 SNe Ia with extremely early-phase optical light curves (“golden” early-phase SNe Ia) and three of them are selected from 40 SNe Ia (including 13 golden sample) with early-phase UV/NUV light curves. We found that previously discovered early-excess SNe Ia show clear preference to specific SN Ia subclasses. In particular, the early-excess feature shown in all six luminous (91T- and 99aa-like) SNe Ia is in conflict with the viewing angle dependence predicted by the companion-ejecta interaction scenario. Instead, such a high early-excess fraction is likely related with the explosion physics of luminous SNe Ia, i.e. a more efficient detonation happening in the progenitor of luminous SNe Ia may consequently account for the early-excess feature powered by the radiation from a $^{56}$Ni-abundant outer layer. The diversity of early-excess features shown in different SN Ia subclasses suggests multiple origins of the discovered early-excess SNe Ia, challenging their applicability as a robust progenitor indicator. Further understandings of the early-excess diversity rely not only on multiband photometry and prompt-response spectroscopy of individual early-excess SNe Ia but also on investigations of the general early-phase light curve behavior of each SN Ia subclass, which can be realized through on-going/forthcoming transient survey projects in the near future.

Read this paper on arXiv…

J. Jiang, M. Doi, K. Maeda, et. al.
Tue, 21 Aug 18
57/71

Comments: 21 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ