Abstract
Abstract We compare analytic predictions of supernova light curves with recent high-quality data from SN2011fe (Ia), KSN2011b (Ia), and the Palomar Transient Factory and the La Silla-QUEST variability survey (LSQ) (Ia). Because of the steady, fast cadence of observations, KSN2011b provides unique new information on SNe Ia: the smoothness of the light curve, which is consistent with significant large-scale mixing during the explosion, possibly due to 3D effects (e.g., Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities), and provides support for a slowly varying leakage (mean opacity). For a more complex light curve (SN2008D, SN Ib), we separate the luminosity due to multiple causes and indicate the possibility of a radioactive plume. The early rise in luminosity is shown to be affected by the opacity (leakage rate) for thermal and non-thermal radiation. A general derivation of Arnett’s rule again shows that it depends upon all processes heating the plasma, not just radioactive ones, so that SNe Ia will differ from SNe Ibc if the latter have multiple heating processes.
Highlights
Supernovae whose luminosity is primarily powered by the decay chains 56Ni(e, n)56Co, 56Co(e, n)56Fe and 56Co(e+, n)56Fe have generic features. These are prominent in SNe Ia, and appear in SNe Ibc, that is, in both thermonuclear supernovae and those corecollapse supernovae that have lost their hydrogen envelopes (e.g., Arnett 1982, 1996)
The effective opacities for energy leakage in SNe Ia are (1) small, (2) vary little, (0.067 < kt < 0.2), and (3) are insensitive to composition, a surprising result given the complexity of the spectra and the problem. This is consistent with the discussion in Dessart et al (2014), Section 3.2. It seems that leakage of energy rather than line formation is the key issue for bolometric light curves; spectra are the opposite
The analytic solutions for the bolometric light curve require a rate at which photon energy, both thermal and non-thermal, leaks from the ejected mass; this may be quantified by a “leakage time.”
Summary
Supernovae whose luminosity is primarily powered by the decay chains 56Ni(e-, n)56Co, 56Co(e-, n)56Fe and 56Co(e+, n)56Fe have generic features. We compare theoretical light curves (Arnett 1982; Pinto & Eastman 2000a, 2000b) to the best-observed typical SN Ia to date, SN2011fe in M101, the Pinwheel galaxy (Pereira et al 2013), as well as to KSN2011b, the best of three SNe Ia (KSN2011b,c; KSN2012a) detected at early times by the Kepler satellite (Olling et al 2015). For these supernovae, we have bolometric (or near bolometric) light curves, so we may minimize issues of frequency-dependent atmospheric physics.
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