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Register a new userOn the Interpretation of Supernova Light Echo Profiles and Spectra
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The light echo systems of historical supernovae in the Milky Way and local group galaxies provide an unprecedented opportunity to reveal the effects of asymmetry on observables, particularly optical spectra. Scattering dust at different locations on the light echo ellipsoid witnesses the supernova from different perspectives and the light consequently scattered towards Earth preserves the shape of line profile variations introduced by asymmetries in the supernova photosphere. However, the interpretation of supernova light echo spectra to date has not involved a detailed consideration of the effects of outburst duration and geometrical scattering modifications due to finite scattering dust filament dimension, inclination, and image point-spread function and spectrograph slit width. In this paper, we explore the implications of these factors and present a framework for future resolved supernova light echo spectra interpretation, and test it against Cas A and SN 1987A light echo spectra. We conclude that the full modeling of the dimensions and orientation of the scattering dust using the observed light echoes at two or more epochs is critical for the correct interpretation of light echo spectra. Indeed, without doing so one might falsely conclude that differences exist when none are actually present.
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We have discovered a luminous light echo around the normal Type II-Plateau Supernova (SN) 2012aw in Messier 95 (M95; NGC 3351), detected in images obtained approximately two years after explosion with the Wide Field Channel 3 on-board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) by the Legacy ExtraGalactic Ultraviolet Survey (LEGUS). The multi-band observations span from the near-ultraviolet through the optical (F275W, F336W, F438W, F555W, and F814W). The apparent brightness of the echo at the time was ~21--22 mag in all of these bands. The echo appears circular, although less obviously as a ring, with an inhomogeneous surface brightness, in particular, a prominent enhanced brightness to the southeast. The SN itself was still detectable, particularly in the redder bands. We are able to model the light echo as the time-integrated SN light scattered off of diffuse interstellar dust in the SN environment. We have assumed that this dust is analogous to that in the Milky Way with R_V=3.1. The SN light curves that we consider also include models of the unobserved early burst of light from the SN shock breakout. Our analysis of the echo suggests that the distance from the SN to the scattering dust elements along the echo is ~45 pc. The implied visual extinction for the echo-producing dust is consistent with estimates made previously from the SN itself. Finally, our estimate of the SN brightness in F814W is fainter than that measured for the red supergiant star at the precise SN location in pre-SN images, possibly indicating that the star has vanished and confirming it as the likely SN progenitor.
I have discovered a prominent light echo around the low-luminosity Type II-Plateau Supernova (SN) 2008bk in NGC 7793, seen in archival images obtained with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on-board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The echo is a partial ring, brighter to the north and east than to the south and west. The analysis of the echo I present suggests that it is due to the SN light pulse scattered by a sheet, or sheets, of dust located ~15 pc from the SN. The composition of the dust is assumed to be of standard Galactic diffuse interstellar grains. The visual extinction of the dust responsible for the echo is A_V ~ 0.05 mag, in addition to the extinction due to the Galactic foreground toward the host galaxy. That the SN experienced much less overall extinction implies that it is seen through a less dense portion of the interstellar medium in its environment. The late-time HST photometry of SN 2008bk also clearly demonstrates that the progenitor star has vanished.
We identify a light echo candidate from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of NGC 2441, the host galaxy of the Type Ia supernova 1995E. From the echos angular size and the estimated distance to the host galaxy, we find a distance of 207 +/- 35 pc between the dust and the site of the supernova. If confirmed, this echo brings the total number of observed non-historical Type Ia light echoes to three -- the others being SN 1991T and SN 1998bu -- suggesting they are not uncommon. We compare the properties of the known Type Ia supernova echoes and test models of light echoes developed by Patat et al. (2005). HST photometry of the SN 1991T echo shows a fading which is consistent with scattering by dust distributed in a sphere or shell around the supernova. Light echoes have the potential to answer questions about the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae and more effort should be made for their detection given the importance of Type Ia supernovae to measurements of dark energy.
We present multiband photometry of 60 spectroscopically-confirmed supernovae (SN): 39 SN II/IIP, 19 IIn, one IIb and one that was originally classified as a IIn but later as a Ibn. Forty-six have only optical photometry, six have only near infrared (NIR) photometry and eight have both optical and NIR. The median redshift of the sample is 0.016. We also present 192 optical spectra for 47 of the 60 SN. All data are publicly available. There are 26 optical and two NIR light curves of SN II/IIP with redshifts z > 0.01, some of which may give rise to useful distances for cosmological applications. All photometry was obtained between 2000 and 2011 at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO), via the 1.2m and 1.3m PAIRITEL telescopes for the optical and NIR, respectively. Each SN was observed in a subset of the $uUBVRIriJHK_s$ bands. There are a total of 2932 optical and 816 NIR light curve points. Optical spectra were obtained using the FLWO 1.5m Tillinghast telescope with the FAST spectrograph and the MMT Telescope with the Blue Channel Spectrograph. Our photometry is in reasonable agreement with other samples from the literature. Comparison with Pan-STARRS shows that two-thirds of our individual star sequences have weighted-mean V offsets within $pm$0.02 mag. In comparing our standard-system SN light curves with common Carnegie Supernova Project objects using their color terms, we found that roughly three-quarters have average differences within $pm$0.04 mag. The data from this work and the literature will provide insight into SN II explosions, help with developing methods for photometric SN classification, and contribute to their use as cosmological distance indicators.
Core-collapse supernova (SN) ejecta are probably structured on both small and large scales, with greater deviations from spherical symmetry nearer the explosion site. Here, we present 2D and 3D gray radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of type II SN light curves from red (RSG) and blue supergiant (BSG) star explosions to investigate the impact on SN observables of inhomogeneities in density or composition, with a characteristic scale set to a few percent of the local radius. Clumping is found to hasten the release of stored radiation, boosting the early time luminosity and shortening the photospheric phase. Around the photosphere, radiation leaks between the clumps where the photon mean free path is greater. Since radiation is stored uniformly in volume, a greater clumping can increase this leakage by storing more and more mass into smaller and denser clumps containing less and less radiation energy. An inhomogeneous medium in which different regions recombine at different temperatures can also impact the light curve. Clumping can thus be a source of diversity in SN brightness. Clumping may lead to a systematic underestimate of ejecta masses from light curve modeling, although a significant offset seems to require a large density contrast of a few tens between clumps and interclump medium.
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