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The type Iax supernova, SN 2015H

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Magee, MR 
Kotak, R 
Sim, SA 
Kromer, M 
Rabinowitz, D 

Abstract

We present results based on observations of SN 2015H which belongs to the small group of objects similar to SN 2002cx, otherwise known as type Iax supernovae. The availability of deep pre-explosion imaging allowed us to place tight constraints on the explosion epoch. Our observational campaign began approximately one day post-explosion, and extended over a period of about 150 days post maximum light, making it one of the best observed objects of this class to date. We find a peak magnitude of Mr = −17.27± 0.07, and a (Δm15)r = 0.69 ± 0.04. Comparing our observations to synthetic spectra generated from simulations of deflagrations of Chandrasekhar mass carbon-oxygen white dwarfs, we find reasonable agreement with models of weak deflagrations that result in the ejection of ~0.2 M of material containing ~0.07 M of 56Ni. The model light curve however, evolves more rapidly than observations, suggesting that a higher ejecta mass is to be favoured. Nevertheless, empirical modelling of the pseudo-bolometric light curve suggests that ≲0.6 M of material was ejected, implying that the white dwarf is not completely disrupted, and that a bound remnant is a likely outcome.

Description

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from EDP Sciences via http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201528036

Keywords

supernovae: general, supernovae: individual: SN 2015H

Journal Title

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0004-6361
1432-0746

Volume Title

589

Publisher

EDP Sciences
Sponsorship
RK and SAS acknowledge support from STFC via ST/L000709/1. This work makes use of observations from the LCOGT network. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile as part of PESSTO, (the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects Survey) ESO program ID 188.D-3003. IRS was supported by the Australian Research Council Laureate Grant FL0992131. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) for providing computing time through the John von Neumann Institute for Computing (NIC) on the GCS share of the supercomputer JUQUEEN at Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC). G.C.S. is the alliance of the three national supercomputing centres HLRS (Universität Stuttgart), JSC (Forschungszentrum Jülich), and LRZ (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German State Ministries for Research of Baden-Württemberg (MWK), Bayern (StMWFK) and Nordrhein-Westfalen (MIWF). Support for LG is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism’s Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC120009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, MAS. L.G. acknowledges support by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566. K.M. acknowledges support from the STFC through an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship. R.P. acknowledges support by the European Research Council under ERC-StG grant EXAGAL-308037. S.J.S. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement no. [291222] and STFC grants ST/I001123/1 and ST/L000709/1. W.H. acknowledges support by TRR 33 “The Dark Universe” of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Excellence Cluster EXC153 “Origin and Structure of the Universe”. H.C. acknowledges support from the European Union FP7 programme through ERC grant number 320360. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.