Characterizing the secondary maximum in the r-band for Type Ia supernovae: diagnostic for the ejecta mass
Abstract
An increase in the number of studied Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) has demonstrated that this class of explosions has a greater diversity in its observables than was previously assumed. The reasons (e.g. the explosion mechanism, progenitor system) for such a diversity remain unknown. Here, we analyse a sample of r-band light curves of SNe Ia, focusing on their behaviour ∼2-4 weeks after maximum light, i.e. the second maximum. We characterize the second maximum by its timing (t_{r_2}) and the integrated flux (\overline{F}_{r_2}). We find that t_{r_2} correlates with the `colour-stretch' parameter sBV , which can be used as a proxy for 56Ni mass, and \overline{F}_{r_2} correlates with the transparency time-scale, t0. Using \overline{F}_{r_2} for a sample of 199 SNe from the Palomar Transient Factory and intermediate Palomar Transient Factory, we evaluate a distribution on t0 for a sample of SNe Ia found in an `untargeted' survey. Comparing this distribution to the predictions of t0 ranges from models we find that the largest overlap in t0 values between models and observations is for the sub-Chandrasekhar double detonation models. We also compare our relations between t0 and \overline{F}_{r_2} with that from the 1D explosion models of Goldstein & Kasen and confirm that \overline{F}_{r_2} can be used as a diagnostic of the total ejecta mass.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- May 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stz493
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1812.01438
- Bibcode:
- 2019MNRAS.485.2343P
- Keywords:
-
- supernovae: general;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 9 figures and 12 pages of tables, Accepted MNRAS