SN 2012fr: Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-infrared Light Curves of a Type Ia Supernova Observed within a Day of Explosion

Journal Article · Fri May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabaf8· OSTI ID:1457010

Contreras, Carlos  ^[1]; Phillips, M. M.  ^[2]; Burns, Christopher R.  ^[3]; Piro, Anthony L.  ^[3]; Shappee, B. J. ^[3]; Stritzinger, Maximilian D.  ^[4]; Baltay, C. ^[5]; Brown, Peter J.  ^[6]; Conseil, Emmanuel ^[7]; Klotz, Alain ^[8]; Nugent, Peter E.  ^[9]; Turpin, Damien  ^[8]; Parker, Stu ^[10]; Rabinowitz, D. ^[5]; Hsiao, Eric Y.  ^[11]; Morrell, Nidia  ^[2]; Campillay, Abdo ^[12]; Castellon, Sergio ^[2]; Corco, Carlos ^[13]; Gonzalez, Consuelo ^[2] ; Krisciunas, Kevin  ^[6]; Seron, Jacqueline ^[14]; Tucker, Brad E.  ^[15]; Walker, E. S. ^[16]; Baron, E.  ^[17]; Cain, C. ^[17]; Childress, Michael J. ^[18]; Folatelli, Gaston ^[19]; Freedman, Wendy L. ^[20]; Hamuy, Mario ^[21]; Hoeflich, P.  ^[22]; Persson, S. E. ^[3]; Scalzo, Richard ^[23]; Schmidt, Brian  ^[24]; Suntzeff, Nicholas B. ^[6]

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1. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Carnegie Observatories, La Serena (Chile). Las Campanas Observatory
2. Carnegie Observatories, La Serena (Chile). Las Campanas Observatory
3. Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA (United States)
4. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
5. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Physics Dept.
6. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Inst. for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy and Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
7. French Association of Observers of Stars Variables (AFOEV), Strasbourg (France)
8. Univ. of Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP (France)
9. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Astronomy Dept.
10. Parkdale Observatory, Oxford, CT (New Zealand). Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS)
11. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Carnegie Observatories, La Serena (Chile). Las Campanas Observatory; Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Dept. of Physics
12. Carnegie Observatories, La Serena (Chile). Las Campanas Observatory; Univ. of La Serena (Chile). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
13. Carnegie Observatories, La Serena (Chile). Las Campanas Observatory; Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, La Serena (Chile)
14. Carnegie Observatories, La Serena (Chile). Las Campanas Observatory; Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), La Serena (Chile)
15. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia). Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO)
16. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Physics Dept.; Qriously Corp., London (United Kingdom)
17. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Homer L. Dodge Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
18. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia). Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO); Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy
19. National Univ. of La Plata (Argentina). Inst. of Astrophysics of La Plata (IALP), CONICET, and Faculty of Astronomical and Geophysical Sciences
20. Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics
21. Univ. of Chile, Santiago (Chile). Dept. of Astronomy
22. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Dept. of Physics
23. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia). Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO); Univ. of Sydney, NSW (Australia). Centre for Translational Data Science
24. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia). Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics

We present detailed ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared light curves of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2012fr, which exploded in the Fornax cluster member NGC 1365. These precise high-cadence light curves provide a dense coverage of the flux evolution from -12 to +140 days with respect to the epoch of B-band maximum ($${t}_{{B}_{\max }}$$). Supplementary imaging at the earliest epochs reveals an initial slow and nearly linear rise in luminosity with a duration of ~2.5 days, followed by a faster rising phase that is well reproduced by an explosion model with a moderate amount of 56 Ni mixing in the ejecta. From our analysis of the light curves, we conclude that: (i) the explosion occurred < 22 hr before the first detection of the supernova, (ii) the rise time to peak bolometric (λ >1800) luminosity was 16.5 ± 0.6 days, (iii) the supernova suffered little or no host-galaxy dust reddening, (iv) the peak luminosity in both the optical and near-infrared was consistent with the bright end of normal Type Ia diversity, and (v) 0.60 ± 0.15 M_⊙ of ⁵⁶Ni was synthesized in the explosion. Despite its normal luminosity, SN 2012fr displayed unusually prevalent high-velocity Ca ii and Si ii absorption features, and a nearly constant photospheric velocity of the Si ii λ6355 line at ~12,000 km s^-1 that began ~5 days before $${t}_{{B}_{\max }}$$. We also highlight some of the other peculiarities in the early phase photometry and the spectral evolution. SN 2012fr also adds to a growing number of Type Ia supernovae that are hosted by galaxies with direct Cepheid distance measurements.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); National Science Foundation (NSF); Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Velux Foundations, Soborg (Denmark)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; AST0306969; AST0607438; AST1008343; AST1613426; AST1613455; AST1613472; 13261
• OSTI ID: 1457010
• Journal Information: The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 859, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357
• Publisher: Institute of Physics (IOP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
supernovae
SN 2012fr