PTF10ops is a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), whose lightcurve and spectral properties place it outside the current SN Ia subtype classifications. Its spectra display the characteristic lines of subluminous SNe Ia, but it has a normal-width lightcurve with a long rise-time, typical of normal luminosity SNe Ia. The early-time optical spectra of PTF10ops were modelled using a spectral fitting code and found to have all the lines typically seen in subluminous SNe Ia, without the need to invoke more uncommon elements. The host galaxy environment of PTF10ops is also unusual with no galaxy detected at the position of the SN down to an absolute limiting magnitude of r \geq -12.0 mag, but a very massive galaxy is present at a separation of ~148 kpc and at the same redshift as suggested by the SN spectral features. The progenitor of PTF10ops is most likely a very old star, possibly in a low metallicity environment, which affects its explosion mechanism and observational characteristics. PTF10ops does not easily fit into any of the current models of either subluminous or normal SN Ia progenitor channels.
@article{arxiv.1108.0416,
title = {PTF10ops - a subluminous, normal-width lightcurve Type Ia supernova in the middle of nowhere},
author = {Kate Maguire and Mark Sullivan and Rollin C. Thomas and Peter E. Nugent and D. Andrew Howell and Avishay Gal-Yam and Iair Arcavi and Sagi Ben-Ami and Sarah Blake and Janos Botyanszki and Clement Buton and Jeffery Cooke and Richard S. Ellis and Isobel M. Hook and Mansi M. Kasliwal and Yen-Chen Pan and Rui Pereira and Philipp Podsiadlowski and Assaf Sternberg and Nao Suzuki and Dong Xu and Ofer Yaron and Joshua S. Bloom and S. Bradley Cenko and Shrinivas R. Kulkarni and Nicholas Law and Eran O. Ofek and Dovi Poznanski and Robert M. Quimby},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.0416},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS