Looking for the “Blue Bump” in the Early Light Curve of SN Ia using an Open Supernovae Catalog

Abstract

In this study we used archival supernova data from a publicly available database to look for a blue excess in the early light curves of SN Ia. This blue excess represents a simple proposed method to differentiate between single- and double-degenerate formation scenarios. Our search found 2 candidates out of 40 SN Ia, and including selection effects implies an upper limit of ∼50% of the supernovae in the sample originated in a binary with a non-degenerate companion.