Strong Ultraviolet Pulse From a Newborn Type Ia Supernova
Abstract
Type Ia supernovae are destructive explosions of carbon oxygen white dwarfs. Although they are used empirically to measure cosmological distances, the nature of their progenitors remains mysterious, One of the leading progenitor models, called the single degenerate channel, hypothesizes that a white dwarf accretes matter from a companion star and the resulting increase in its central pressure and temperature ignites thermonuclear explosion. Here we report observations of strong but declining ultraviolet emission from a Type Ia supernova within four days of its explosion. This emission is consistent with theoretical expectations of collision between material ejected by the supernova and a companion star, and therefore provides evidence that some Type Ia supernovae arise from the single degenerate channel.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1505.05158,
title = {Strong Ultraviolet Pulse From a Newborn Type Ia Supernova},
author = {Yi Cao and S. R. Kulkarni and D. Andrew Howell and Avishay Gal-Yam and Mansi M. Kasliwal and Stefano Valenti and J. Johansson and R. Amanullah and A. Goobar and J. Sollerman and F. Taddia and Assaf Horesh and Ilan Sagiv and S. Bradley Cenko and Peter E. Nugent and Iair Arcavi and Jason Surace and P. R. Woźniak and Daniela I. Moody and Umaa D. Rebbapragada and Brian D. Bue and Neil Gehrels},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.05158},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication on the 21 May 2015 issue of Nature