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Title: Early Observations of the Type Ia Supernova iPTF 16abc: A Case of Interaction with Nearby, Unbound Material and/or Strong Ejecta Mixing

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9];  [7]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [11]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [12]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [13]; ORCiD logo [9] more »;  [9]; ORCiD logo [4] « less
  1. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). eScience Inst. and Astronomy Dept.
  3. Observatories of the Carnegie Inst. for Science, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  4. California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States). Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
  5. California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.
  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Joint Space-Science Inst.
  7. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Oskar Klein Centre, Dept. of Physics
  8. Space Telescope Science Inst., Baltimore, MD (United States)
  9. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Oskar Klein Centre, Dept. of Astronomy
  10. Las Cumbres Observatory, Goleta, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  11. California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States). Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  12. California Inst. of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  13. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
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Early observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) provide a unique probe of their progenitor systems and explosion physics. Here we report the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) discovery of an extraordinarily young SN Ia, iPTF 16abc. By fitting a power law to our early light curve, we infer that first light for the SN, that is when the SN could have first been detected by our survey, occurred only $$0.15\pm_{0.07}^{0.15}$$ days before our first detection. In the $$\sim$$24 hr after discovery, iPTF 16abc rose by $$\sim$$2 mag, featuring a near-linear rise in flux for $$\gtrsim$$3 days. Early spectra show strong C II absorption, which disappears after $$\sim$$7 days. Unlike the extensivelyobserved SN Ia SN 2011fe, the $$(B-V)_0$$ colors of iPTF 16abc are blue and nearly constant in the days after explosion. We show that our early observations of iPTF 16abc cannot be explained by either SN shock breakout and the associated, subsequent cooling or the SN ejecta colliding with a stellar companion. Instead, we argue that the early characteristics of iPTF 16abc, including (i) the rapid, near-linear rise, (ii) the nonevolving blue colors, and (iii) the strong C II absorption, are the result of either ejecta interaction with nearby, unbound material or vigorous mixing of radioactive 56Ni in the SN ejecta, or a combination of the two. Finally, in the next few years, dozens of very young normal SNe Ia will be discovered, and observations similar to those presented here will constrain the white dwarf explosion mechanism.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; 1545949
OSTI ID:
1456978
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 852, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 45 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Constraints on the explosion mechanism and progenitors of type Ia supernovae text January 2013
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Exploring the Potential Diversity of Early Type Ia Supernova Light Curves text January 2015
A reddening-free method to estimate the $^{56}$Ni mass of Type Ia supernovae text January 2016
The peculiar Type Ia supernova iPTF14atg: Chandrasekhar-mass explosion or violent merger? text January 2016
Volumetric Survey Speed: A Figure of Merit for Transient Surveys text January 2016
PTF12os and iPTF13bvn. Two stripped-envelope supernovae from low-mass progenitors in NGC 5806 text January 2016
Early Blue Excess from the Type Ia Supernova 2017cbv and Implications for Its Progenitor text January 2017
Probing gas and dust in the tidal tail of NGC 5221 with the type Ia supernova iPTF16abc text January 2017
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Cited By (22)

Discovery and progenitor constraints on the Type Ia supernova 2013gy journal July 2019
iPTF16abc and the population of Type Ia supernovae: comparing the photospheric, transitional, and nebular phases journal July 2018
Exploring the shell model of high-velocity features of Type Ia supernovae using tardis journal January 2019
SN 2012fr: Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-infrared Light Curves of a Type Ia Supernova Observed within a Day of Explosion journal May 2018
Type Ia Supernovae in the First Few Days: Signatures of Helium Detonation versus Interaction journal July 2018
Photometric and Spectroscopic Properties of Type Ia Supernova 2018oh with Early Excess Emission from the Kepler 2 Observations journal December 2018
Seeing Double: ASASSN-18bt Exhibits a Two-component Rise in the Early-time K2 Light Curve journal December 2018
Delayed Circumstellar Interaction for Type Ia SN 2015cp Revealed by an HST Ultraviolet Imaging Survey journal January 2019
Observations of Type Ia Supernova 2014J for Nearly 900 Days and Constraints on Its Progenitor System journal August 2019
ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae. I. Properties of the 2018 Sample journal December 2019
Red versus Blue: Early Observations of Thermonuclear Supernovae Reveal Two Distinct Populations? journal September 2018
K2 Observations of SN 2018oh Reveal a Two-component Rising Light Curve for a Type Ia Supernova journal December 2018
Nebular Spectroscopy of Kepler ’s Brightest Supernova journal January 2019
No Stripped Companion Material in the Nebular Spectrum of the “Two-Component” Type Ia Supernova ASASSN-18bt journal February 2019
Nebular Spectroscopy of the “Blue Bump” Type Ia Supernova 2017cbv journal August 2018
Surface Radioactivity or Interactions? Multiple Origins of Early-excess Type Ia Supernovae and Associated Subclasses journal October 2018
Type Ia Supernovae in the First Few Days: Signatures of Helium Detonation versus Interaction text January 2018
Red vs Blue: Early observations of thermonuclear supernovae reveal two distinct populations? text January 2018
iPTF16abc and the population of Type Ia supernovae: Comparing the photospheric, transitional and nebular phases text January 2018
No Stripped Companion Material in the Nebular Spectrum of the "Two-Component" Type Ia Supernova ASASSN-18bt text January 2018
Exploring the shell model of high-velocity features of Type Ia supernovae using TARDIS text January 2019
ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae I: Properties of the 2018 Sample text January 2019

Figures / Tables (10)

Figure 1.(p. 4)figure Figure 1.
Table 1.(p. 5)table Table 1.
Figure 2.(p. 6)figure Figure 2.
Figure 3.(p. 8)figure Figure 3.
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Figure 5.(p. 9)figure Figure 5.
Figure 6.(p. 10)figure Figure 6.
Figure 7.(p. 11)figure Figure 7.
Figure 8.(p. 13)figure Figure 8.
Figure 9.(p. 16)figure Figure 9.

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
methods: observational
supernovae: general
supernovae: individual (iPTF 16abc
SN 2011fe)
surveys