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Register a new userThe recurrent nova RS Oph: A possible scenario for type Ia supernovae
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The recurrent nova RS Oph experienced an outburst in 2006, 21 years after its previous explosion in 1985, as expected. It was observed at almost all wavelengths, and important information about its properties is still being extracted. We present theoretical models of the explosion of this fascinating object, which indicate that the mass of the accreting white dwarf should be very close to the Chandrasekhar mass, to allow for such a short recurrence period. In addition, since models suggest that this nova ejects less mass than it accretes, it is an excellent candidate for a thermonuclear supernova explosion, in about $10^5-10^7$ years from now. We also analyze the emission of soft gamma-rays by RS Oph detected with the BAT instrument onboard Swift, and with the PCA onboard RXTE. We rule out that this emission has its origin in radioactive decays in the expanding nova envelope.
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We report on interferometric AMBER/VLTI observations of the recurrent nova RS Oph five days after its outburst on 2006 Feb 12. Using three baselines from 44 to 86m, and a spectral resolution of 1500, we measured the extension of the emission in the K band continuum and in the BrG and HeI2.06 micron lines. The continuum visibilities were interpreted by fitting simple geometric models consisting of uniform and Gaussian ellipses, ring and binary models. The visibilities and differential phases in the BrG line were interpreted using skewed ring models aiming to perform a limited parametric reconstruction of the extension and kinematics of the line forming region. The limited uv coverage does not allow discrimination between filled models and rings. Binary models are discarded because the measured closure phase in the continuum is close to zero. The visibilities in the lines are at a low level compared to their nearby continuum, consistent with a more extended line forming region for HeI2.06 than BrG. The ellipse models for the continuum and for the lines are highly flattened and share the same position angle. Two radial velocity fields are apparent in the BrG line: a slow expanding ring-like structure (v~1800km/s), and a fast structure extended in the E-W direction (v~2500-3000km/s). These results confirm the basic fireball model, contrary to the conclusions of other interferometric observations conducted by Monnier et al. (2006).
We performed 48.6 hours (in 28 nights) of simultaneous B and V band observations of the flickering variability of the recurrent nova RS Oph in quiescence. During the time of our observations the brightness of the system varied between 13.2 > B > 11.1 and the colour in the range 0.86 < B-V < 1.33 . We find that RS~Oph becomes more blue, as it becomes brighter, however the hot component becomes more red as it becomes brighter (assuming that the red giant is non-variable). During all the runs RS Oph exhibits flickering with amplitude 0.16 - 0.59 mag in B band. For the flickering source we find that it has colour -0.14 < B-V < 0.40, temperature in the range 7200 < T_fl < 18900, and average radius 1.1 < R_fl < 6.7 R_sun. We do not find a correlation between the temperature of the flickering and the brightness. However, we do find a strong correlation (correlation coefficient 0.81, significance 1.1x10^{-7} ) between B band magnitude and the average radius of the flickering source - as the brightness of the system increases the size of the flickering source also increases. The estimated temperature is similar to that of the bright spot of cataclysmic variables. The persistent presence of flickering indicates that the white dwarf is actively accreting material for the next outburst.
We derive the mass of the white dwarf in the eclipsing recurrent nova U Sco from the radial velocity semi-amplitudes of the primary and secondary stars. Our results give a high white dwarf mass of M_1 = 1.55 pm 0.24M_odot, consistent with the thermonuclear runaway model of recurrent nova outbursts. We confirm that U Sco is the best Type Ia supernova progenitor known, and predict that the time to explosion is within ~700,000 years.
The origin of the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is still uncertain. The core-degenerate (CD) scenario has been proposed as an alternative way for the production of SNe Ia. In this scenario, SNe Ia are formed at the final stage of common-envelope evolution from a merger of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf (CO WD) with the CO core of an asymptotic giant branch companion. However, the birthrates of SNe Ia from this scenario are still not well determined. In this work, we performed a detailed investigation on the CD scenario based on a binary population synthesis approach. The SN Ia delay times from this scenario are basically in the range of 90Myr-2500Myr, mainly contributing to the observed SNe Ia with short and intermediate delay times although this scenario can also produce some old SNe Ia. Meanwhile, our work indicates that the Galactic birthrates of SNe Ia from this scenario are no more than 20% of total SNe Ia due to more careful treatment of mass transfer. Although the SN Ia birthrates in the present work are lower than those in Ilkov & Soker, the CD scenario cannot be ruled out as a viable mechanism for the formation of SNe Ia. Especially, SNe Ia with circumstellar material from this scenario contribute to 0.7-10% of total SNe Ia, which means that the CD scenario can reproduce the observed birthrates of SNe Ia like PTF 11kx. We also found that SNe Ia happen systemically earlier for a high value of metallicity and their birthrates increase with metallicity.
Nova V2491 Cyg was discovered on April 10.72 UT 2008 (Nakano, 2008). Here we present spectrophotometric premises that V2491 Cyg can be a good candidate for recurrent nova (RNe). Its properties are compared to five well known RNe with red dwarf secondaries (U Sco, V394 Cra, T Pyx, CI Aql, IM Nor) and recently confirmed as recurrent nova V2487 Oph (Pagnotta et al.,2008). Photometric $U, B, V, R_C, I_C$ and moderate resolution (R$sim 1500$) spectral observations of V2491 Cyg were carried out in the Torun Observatory (Poland) between April 14 and May 20 2008.
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