THE SUBLUMINOUS SUPERNOVA 2007qd: A MISSING LINK IN A FAMILY OF LOW-LUMINOSITY TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/720/1/704· OSTI ID:21460112

McClelland, Colin M; Garnavich, Peter M ^[1]; Galbany, LluIs; Miquel, Ramon ^[2]; Foley, Ryan J ^[3]; Filippenko, Alexei V ^[4]; Bassett, Bruce ^[5]; Wheeler, J Craig ^[6]; Goobar, Ariel ^[7]; Jha, Saurabh W ^[8]; Sako, Masao ^[9]; Frieman, Joshua A ^[10]; Sollerman, Jesper ^[11]; Vinko, Jozsef ^[12]; Schneider, Donald P ^[13]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)
2. Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Barcelona (Spain)
3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
4. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)
5. Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701 (South Africa)
6. Department of Astronomy, McDonald Observatory, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 (United States)
7. Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States)
9. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (United States)
10. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellise Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
11. Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark)
12. Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics, University of Szeged (Hungary)
13. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)

We present multi-band photometry and multi-epoch spectroscopy of the peculiar Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2007qd, discovered by the SDSS-II Supernova Survey. It possesses physical properties intermediate to those of the peculiar SN 2002cx and the extremely low-luminosity SN 2008ha. Optical photometry indicates that it had an extraordinarily fast rise time of {approx}<10 days and a peak absolute B magnitude of -15.4 {+-} 0.2 at most, making it one of the most subluminous SN Ia ever observed. Follow-up spectroscopy of SN 2007qd near maximum brightness unambiguously shows the presence of intermediate-mass elements which are likely caused by carbon/oxygen nuclear burning. Near maximum brightness, SN 2007qd had a photospheric velocity of only 2800 km s{sup -1}, similar to that of SN 2008ha but about 4000 and 7000 km s{sup -1} less than that of SN 2002cx and normal SN Ia, respectively. We show that the peak luminosities of SN 2002cx like objects are highly correlated with both their light-curve stretch and photospheric velocities. Its strong apparent connection to other SN 2002cx like events suggests that SN 2007qd is also a pure deflagration of a white dwarf, although other mechanisms cannot be ruled out. It may be a critical link between SN 2008ha and the other members of the SN 2002cx like class of objects.

• OSTI ID: 21460112
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 720; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BINARY STARS
BRIGHTNESS
CARBON
DWARF STARS
ELEMENTS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
NONMETALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OXYGEN
PHOTOMETRY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PULSE RISE TIME
SPECTROSCOPY
STARS
SUPERNOVAE
TIMING PROPERTIES
VARIABLE STARS
WHITE DWARF STARS