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Title: A Hubble Space Telescope survey for Novae in M87. II. Snuffing out the maximum magnitude–rate of decline relation for novae as a non-standard candle, and a prediction of the existence of ultrafast novae

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9];  [6]; ORCiD logo [10];  [11]
  1. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (United States); Univ. of Cambridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
  2. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (United States); Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL (United States)
  3. National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  4. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (United States)
  5. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  6. Tel Aviv Univ., Tel Aviv (Israel)
  7. CSIRO, Epping, NSW (Australia)
  8. Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (Poland)
  9. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  10. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada)
  11. Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The extensive grid of numerical simulations of nova eruptions first predicted that some classical novae might significantly deviate from the Maximum Magnitude–Rate of Decline (MMRD) relation, which purports to characterize novae as standard candles. Kasliwal et al. have announced the observational detection of a new class of faint, fast classical novae in the Andromeda galaxy. These objects deviate strongly from the MMRD relationship, as predicted by Yaron et al. Recently, Shara et al. reported the first detections of faint, fast novae in M87. These previously overlooked objects are as common in the giant elliptical galaxy M87 as they are in the giant spiral M31; they comprise about 40% of all classical nova eruptions and greatly increase the observational scatter in the MMRD relation. We use the extensive grid of the nova simulations of Yaron et al. to identify the underlying causes of the existence of faint, fast novae. These are systems that have accreted, and can thus eject, only very low-mass envelopes, of the order of 10–7–10–8 M ⊙, on massive white dwarfs. Such binaries include, but are not limited to, the recurrent novae. As a result, these same models predict the existence of ultrafast novae that display decline times, t 2, to be as short as five hours. We outline a strategy for their future detection.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab. (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1360216
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 839, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 23 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (8)

Multiwavelength observations of V407 Lupi (ASASSN-16kt) – a very fast nova erupting in an intermediate polar journal July 2018
A new catalogue of Galactic novae: investigation of the MMRD relation and spatial distribution journal February 2018
AT 2017fvz: a nova in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822 journal April 2019
A Light-curve Analysis of Gamma-Ray Nova V959 Mon: Distance and White Dwarf Mass journal May 2018
A Light Curve Analysis of Recurrent and Very Fast Novae in Our Galaxy, Magellanic Clouds, and M31 journal July 2018
Multiwavelength observations of V407 Lupi (ASASSN-16kt) --- a very fast nova erupting in an intermediate polar text January 2018
AT 2017fvz: a nova in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822 text January 2019
Observations of galactic and extragalactic novae journal July 2020

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
binaries: close – novae
cataclysmic variables