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Published June 10, 2019 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

ZTF18aalrxas: A Type IIb Supernova from a Very Extended Low-mass Progenitor

Abstract

We investigate ZTF18aalrxas, a double-peaked Type IIb core-collapse supernova (SN) discovered during science validation of the Zwicky Transient Facility. ZTF18aalrxas was discovered while the optical emission was still rising toward the initial cooling peak (0.7 mag over 2 days). Our observations consist of multi-band (ultraviolet and optical) light curves (LCs), and optical spectra spanning from ≈0.7 to ≈180 days past the explosion. We use a Monte-Carlo based non-local thermodynamic equilibrium model that simultaneously reproduces both the ^(56)Ni-powered bolometric LC and our nebular spectrum. This model is used to constrain the synthesized radioactive nickel mass (0.17 M☉) and the total ejecta mass (1.7 M☉) of the SN. The cooling emission is modeled using semi-analytical extended envelope models to constrain the progenitor radius (790–1050 R ⊙) at the time of explosion. Our nebular spectrum shows signs of interaction with a dense circumstellar medium (CSM), and this spectrum is modeled and analyzed to constrain the amount of ejected oxygen (0.3–0.5 M☉) and the total hydrogen mass (≈0.15 M☉) in the envelope of the progenitor. The oxygen mass of ZTF18aalrxas is consistent with a low (12–13 M☉) zero-age main-sequence mass progenitor. The LCs and spectra of ZTF18aalrxas are not consistent with massive single-star SN Type IIb progenitor models. The presence of an extended hydrogen envelope of low mass, the presence of a dense CSM, the derived ejecta mass, and the late-time oxygen emission can all be explained in a binary model scenario.

Additional Information

© 2019 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2019 March 21; revised 2019 May 3; accepted 2019 May 6; published 2019 June 5. This work is based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48 inch and the 60 inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. This work was supported by the GROWTH project funded by the National Science Foundation under PIRE grant No. 1545949. The Oskar Klein Centre is funded by the Swedish Research Council. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This work is also partially based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. Some of the data presented here were obtained with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOTSA. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA; the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. This Letter is partly based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. It is partially based on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium. The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. The SED Machine is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 1106171. A.G.-Y. is supported by the EU/FP7 via ERC grant 307260, "The Quantum Universe" I-Core program by the Israeli Committee for planning and budgeting, by ISF, GIF, and Minerva grants, and by the Kimmel award. This work is part of the research programme VENI, with project No. 016.192.277, which is (partly) financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Software: JEKYLL (Ergon et al. 2018), emcee package (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013), SkyPortal (Van der Walt et al. 2019), HEAsoft (v6.25; HEASARC 2014), LPipe reduction pipeline (D. A. Perley et al. 2019, in preparation).

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Published - Fremling_2019_ApJL_878_L5.pdf

Submitted - 1903.09262.pdf

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August 19, 2023
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