AN EXTENDED GRID OF NOVA MODELS. III. VERY LUMINOUS, RED NOVAE
- Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West and 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192 (United States)
- Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978 (Israel)
Extremely luminous, red eruptive variables like RV in M31 are being suggested as exemplars of a new class of astrophysical objects. Our greatly extended series of nova simulations shows that classical nova models can produce very red, luminous eruptions. In a poorly studied corner of three-dimensional nova parameter space (very cold, low-mass white dwarfs, accreting at very low rates) we find bona fide classical novae that are very luminous and red because they eject very slowly moving, massive envelopes. A crucial prediction of these nova models-in contrast to the predictions of merging star ('mergeburst') models-is that a hot remnant, the underlying white dwarf, will emerge after the massive ejected envelope has expanded enough to become optically thin. This blue remnant must fade on a timescale of decades-much faster than a 'mergeburst', which must fade on timescales of millennia or longer. Furthermore, the cooling nova white dwarf and its expanding ejecta must become redder in the years after eruption, while a contracting mergeburst must become hotter and bluer. We predict that red novae will always brighten to L {approx} 1000 L{sub sun} for about one year before rising to the maximum luminosity at L {approx} 10{sup 6}-10{sup 7} L{sub sun}. The maximum luminosity attainable by a nova is likely to be L {approx} 10{sup 7} L{sub sun}, corresponding to M {approx} -12. In an accompanying paper, we describe a fading, luminous blue candidate for the remnant of M31-RV; it is observed with the Hubble Space Telescope to be compatible only with the nova model.
- OSTI ID:
- 21474385
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 725, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/725/1/831; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCRETION DISKS
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
ERUPTION
FORECASTING
LUMINOSITY
NOVAE
TELESCOPES
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
WHITE DWARF STARS
BINARY STARS
DWARF STARS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICS
SIMULATION
STARS
VARIABLE STARS