Constraining the Progenitor System of the Type Ia Supernova 2021aefx
Abstract
We present high-cadence optical and ultraviolet light curves of the normal Type Ia supernova (SN) 2021aefx, which shows an early bump during the first two days of observation. This bump may be a signature of interaction between the exploding white dwarf and a nondegenerate binary companion, or it may be intrinsic to the white dwarf explosion mechanism. In the case of the former, the short duration of the bump implies a relatively compact main-sequence companion star, although this conclusion is viewing-angle dependent. Our best-fit companion-shocking and double-detonation models both overpredict the UV luminosity during the bump, and existing nickel-shell models do not match the strength and timescale of the bump. We also present nebular spectra of SN 2021aefx, which do not show the hydrogen or helium emission expected from a nondegenerate companion, as well as a radio nondetection that rules out all symbiotic progenitor systems and most accretion disk winds. Our analysis places strong but conflicting constraints on the progenitor of SN 2021aefx; no current model can explain all of our observations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2205.02236,
title = {Constraining the Progenitor System of the Type Ia Supernova 2021aefx},
author = {Griffin Hosseinzadeh and David J. Sand and Peter Lundqvist and Jennifer E. Andrews and K. Azalee Bostroem and Yize Dong and Daryl Janzen and Jacob E. Jencson and Michael Lundquist and Nicolás Meza and Jeniveve Pearson and Stefano Valenti and Samuel Wyatt and Jamison Burke and D. Andrew Howell and Curtis McCully and Megan Newsome and Estefania Padilla Gonzalez and Craig Pellegrino and Giacomo Terreran and Lindsey A. Kwok and Saurabh W. Jha and Jay Strader and Esha Kundu and Stuart D. Ryder and Joshua Haislip and Vladimir Kouprianov and Daniel E. Reichart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.02236},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
updated to match accepted version