Related papers: The Recurrent Nova U Scorpii - A Type Ia Supernova…
On the basis of the current observational evidence, we put forward the case that the merger of two CO white dwarfs produces both a Type Ia supernova explosion and a stellar remnant, the latter in the form of a magnetar. The estimated…
Double white dwarf binaries are a leading explanation to the origin of type Ia supernovae, but no system exceeding the Chandrasekhar mass limit (1.4 M$_\odot$) has been found that will explode anywhere close to a Hubble time. Here, we…
We present observations of the Type Ic supernova (SN Ic) 2011bm spanning a period of about one year. The data establish that SN 2011bm is a spectroscopically normal SN Ic with moderately low ejecta velocities and with a very slow…
The single-degenerate model for the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is one of the two most popular models, in which a carbon-oxygen white dwarf (CO WD) accretes hydrogen-rich material from its companion, increases its mass to the…
A definitive determination of the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNIa) has been a conundrum for decades. The single degenerate scenario $-$ a white dwarf (WD) in a semi-detached binary system accreting mass from its secondary $-$ is a…
In this paper, we present and analyse optical photometry and spectra of the extremely luminous and slowly evolving Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2009dc, and offer evidence that it is a super-Chandrasekhar mass (SC) SN Ia and thus had a SC white…
In the single degenerate (SD) scenario for type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), a mass-accreting white dwarf is expected to experience a supersoft X-ray source (SSS) phase. However, some recent observations showed that the expected number of the…
Models for the progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae can be divided into double-degenerate systems, which contain two white dwarfs, and single-degenerate systems, which contain one white dwarf plus one companion star (either a red giant,…
We present pre-explosion photometry of the likely progenitor star of the Type II supernova (SN II) 2017eaw in NGC 6946. We use a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of SN 2017eaw to perform relative astrometry with HST and Spitzer Space…
Type Ia supernovae have proven vital to our understanding of cosmology, both as standard candles and for their role in galactic chemical evolution; however, their origin remains uncertain. The canonical accretion model implies a hot and…
We analyzed optical, UV, and X-ray light curves of 14 recurrent and very fast novae in our galaxy, Magellanic Clouds, and M31, and obtained their distances and white dwarf (WD) masses. Among the 14 novae, we found that eight novae host very…
We present optical, ultraviolet, and infrared data of the type II supernova (SN II) 2020jfo at 14.5 Mpc. This wealth of multiwavelength data allows to compare different metrics commonly used to estimate progenitor masses of SN II for the…
I examine the hypothesis that many of the high velocity white dwarfs observed by Oppenheimer et al. (2001) are the remnants of donor stars from binaries that produced type Ia supernovae via the `single degenerate' channel. If this channel…
The Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2013dy in NGC 7250 (d ~ 13.7 Mpc) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. Combined with a prediscovery detection by the Italian Supernova Search Project, we are able to constrain the…
Type Ia supernovae arise from thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs accreting from a binary companion. Following the explosion, the surviving donor star leaves at roughly its orbital velocity. The discovery of the runaway helium subdwarf…
We present optical ($B$, $V$, $R_{\rm c}$, $I_{\rm c}$ and $y$) and near infrared ($J$, $H$ and $K_{\rm s}$) photometric and spectroscopic observations of a classical nova V1280 Scorpii for five years from 2007 to 2011. Our photometric…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been used empirically as standardized candles to reveal the accelerating universe even though fundamental details, such as the nature of the progenitor system and how the star explodes, remained a mystery.…
Supernova 2002ic was an atypical Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) with evidence for substantial amounts of hydrogen associated with the system. Contrary to previous claims, we show that its unusual properties can be understood within the framework…
The nature of the progenitors of SNe Ia is not yet fully understood. In the single-degenerate (SD) scenario, the collision of the SN ejecta with its companion star is expected to produce detectable UV emission in the first few days after…
Type-Iax supernovae (SN Iax) are stellar explosions that are spectroscopically similar to some type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia) at maximum light, except with lower ejecta velocities. They are also distinguished by lower luminosities. At late…