English

An Asymmetric Double-Degenerate Type Ia Supernova Explosion with a Surviving Companion Star

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2023-12-21 v2 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We present nebular spectroscopy of SN 2020hvf, a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) with an early bump in its light curve. SN 2020hvf shares many spectroscopic and photometric similarities to the carbon-rich high-luminosity "03fg-like" SNe Ia. At >>240 days after peak brightness, we detect unambiguous emission from [Ca II] λλ\lambda\lambda7291, 7324 which is never observed in normal-SNe Ia and only seen in peculiar subclasses. SN 2020hvf displays "saw-tooth" emission profiles near 7300 A that cannot be explained with single symmetric velocity components of [Fe II], [Ni II], and [Ca II], indicating an asymmetric explosion. The broad [Ca II] emission is best modeled by two velocity components offset by 1,220 km s1^{-1}, which could be caused by ejecta associated with each star in the progenitor system, separated by their orbital velocity. For the first time in a SN Ia, we identify narrow (FWHM=180±40{\rm FWHM} = 180\pm40 km s1^{-1}) [Ca II] emission, which we associate with a wind from a surviving, puffed-up companion star. Few published spectra have sufficient resolution and signal-to-noise ratio necessary to detect similar narrow [Ca II] emission, however, we have detected similar line profiles in other 03fg-like SNe Ia. The extremely narrow velocity width of [Ca II] has only otherwise been observed in SNe Iax at late times. Since this event likely had a double-degenerate "super-Chandrasekhar" mass progenitor system, we suggest that a single white dwarf (WD) was fully disrupted and a wind from a surviving companion WD is producing the observed narrow emission. It is unclear if this unique progenitor and explosion scenario can explain the diversity of 03fg-like SNe Ia, potentially indicating that multiple progenitor channels contribute to this subclass.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.11788,
  title  = {An Asymmetric Double-Degenerate Type Ia Supernova Explosion with a Surviving Companion Star},
  author = {Matthew R. Siebert and Ryan J. Foley and Yossef Zenati and Georgios Dimitriadis and Eva Schmidt and Grace Yang and Kyle W. Davis and Kirsty Taggart and César Rojas-Bravo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.11788},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

18 pages, 10 figures, Published in ApJ