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Title: Color Me Intrigued: the Discovery of iPTF 16fnm, a Supernova 2002cx-like Object

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [6];  [2];  [7];  [8];  [4];  [9];  [10];  [4];  [4];  [6]
  1. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL (United States); California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  4. AlbaNova, Stockholm (Sweden)
  5. Weizmann Inst. of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
  6. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States
  7. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark). The Niels Bohr Inst.; Liverpool John Moores Univ. (United Kingdom)
  9. San Diego State Univ., CA (United States)
  10. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), La Canada Flintridge, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.
+ Show Author Affiliations

Modern wide-field, optical time-domain surveys must solve a basic optimization problem: maximize the number of transient discoveries or minimize the follow-up needed for the new discoveries. Here, we describe the Color Me Intrigued experiment, the first from the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) to search for transients simultaneously in the $$g_\mathrm{PTF}$$- and $$R_\mathrm{PTF}$$-bands. During the course of this experiment we discovered iPTF$$\,$$16fnm, a new member of the 02cx-like subclass of type Ia supernovae (SNe). iPTF$$\,$$16fnm peaked at $$M_{g_\mathrm{PTF}} = -15.09 \pm 0.17 \; \mathrm{mag}$$, making it the second least-luminous known type Ia SN. iPTF 16fnm exhibits all the hallmarks of the 02cx-like class: (i) low luminosity at peak, (ii) low ejecta velocities, and (iii) a non-nebular spectra several months after peak. Spectroscopically, iPTF$$\,$$16fnm exhibits a striking resemblence to 2 other low-luminosity 02cx-like SNe: SNe 2007qd and 2010ae. iPTF$$\,$$16fnm and SN 2005hk decline at nearly the same rate, despite a 3 mag difference in brightness at peak. When considering the full subclass of 02cx-like SNe, we do not find evidence for a tight correlation between peak luminosity and decline rate in either the $g'$ or $r'$ band. We further examine the $g' - r'$ evolution of 02cx-like SNe and find that their unique color evolution can be used to separate them from 91bg-like and normal type Ia SNe. This selection function will be especially important in the spectroscopically incomplete Zwicky Transient Facility/Large Synoptic Survey Telescope era. We measure the relative rate of 02cx-like SNe to normal SNe Ia and find $$r_{N_{02cx}/N_{Ia}} = 25^{+75}_{-18.5}\%$$. Finally, we close by recommending that LSST periodically evaluate, and possibly update, its observing cadence to maximize transient science.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1398469
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 848, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Models and Simulations for the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time Series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC) journal July 2019
Testing (modified) gravity with 3D and tomographic cosmic shear journal August 2018
Synchrotron self-absorption in GRB afterglows: the effects of a thermal electron population journal August 2018
R-band light-curve properties of Type Ia supernovae from the (intermediate) Palomar Transient Factory journal December 2018
Detection of circumstellar helium in Type Iax progenitor systems journal May 2019
Serendipitous discoveries of kilonovae in the LSST main survey: maximizing detections of sub-threshold gravitational wave events journal February 2019
The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results text January 2019
The Redshift Completeness of Local Galaxy Catalogs journal June 2018
Evolution of Helium Star–White Dwarf Binaries Leading up to Thermonuclear Supernovae journal June 2019
ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae. I. Properties of the 2018 Sample journal December 2019
Sifting for Sapphires: Systematic Selection of Tidal Disruption Events in iPTF journal September 2018
The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results journal December 2018
Models and simulations for the photometric lsst astronomical time series classification challenge (Plasticc) text January 2019
Evolution of Helium Star - White Dwarf Binaries Leading up to Thermonuclear Supernovae text January 2019
iPTF Survey for Cool Transients text January 2017
Synchrotron self-absorption in GRB afterglows: the effects of a thermal electron population text January 2018
Serendipitous Discoveries of Kilonovae in the LSST Main Survey: Maximising Detections of Sub-Threshold Gravitational Wave Events text January 2018
Evolution of Helium Star - White Dwarf Binaries Leading up to Thermonuclear Supernovae text January 2019
The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results text January 2019
ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae I: Properties of the 2018 Sample text January 2019

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS