Five-Year Optical and Near Infrared Observations of the Extremely Slow Nova V1280 Scorpii

Abstract

We present optical ($B$, $V$, $R_{\mathrm{c}}$, $I_{\mathrm{c}}$ and $y$) and near infrared ($J$, $H$ and $K_{\mathrm{s}}$) photometric and spectroscopic observations of a classical nova V1280 Scorpii for five years from 2007 to 2011. Our photometric observations show a declining event in optical bands shortly after the maximum light which continues $\sim$ 250 days. The event is most probably caused by a dust formation. The event is accompanied by a short ($\sim$ 30 days) re-brightening episode ($\sim$ 2.5 mag in $V$), which suggests a re-ignition of the surface nuclear burning. After 2008, the $y$ band observations show a very long plateau at around $y$ = 10.5 for more than 1000 days until April 2011 ($\sim$ 1500 days after the maximum light). The nova had taken a very long time ($\sim$ 50 months) before entering the nebular phase (clear detection of both [\ion{O}{iii}] 4959 and 5007) and is still continuing to generate the wind caused by H-burning. The finding suggests that V1280 Sco is going through the historically slowest evolution. The interval from the maximum light (2007 February 16) to the beginning of the nebular phase is longer than any previously known slow novae: V723 Cas (18 months), RR Pic (10 months), or HR Del (8 months). It suggests that the mass of a white dwarf in the V1280 Sco system might be 0.6 $M_\mathrm{\sun}$ or smaller. The distance, based on our measurements of the expansion velocity combined with the directly measured size of the dust shell, is estimated to be 1.1 $\pm$ 0.5 kpc.

17 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (8)

• A Universal Decline Law of Classical Novae
• The spectroscopic evolution of the recurrent nova T Pyxidis during its 2011 outburst I. The optically thick phase and the origin of moving lines in novae
• Near-Infrared Studies of V1280 Sco (Nova Scorpii 2007)
• VLTI monitoring of the dust formation event of the Nova V1280 Sco
• A Universal Decline Law of Classical Novae. III. GQ Mus 1983
• Effects of a Companion Star on Slow Nova Outbursts -- Transition from Static to Wind Evolutions
• Optical evolution of Nova Ophiuchi 2007 = V2615 Oph
• On Nova Scorpii 2007 N.1 (V1280 Sco)

Cited by in corpus (15)

• New Insights into Classical Novae
• The Stony Brook / SMARTS Atlas of mostly Southern Novae
• The expanding dusty bipolar nebula around the nova V1280 Sco
• A New Catalogue of Galactic Novae: Investigation of the MMRD relation & Spatial Distribution
• V496 Scuti: An Fe II nova with dust shell accompanied by CO emission
• The UBV Color Evolution of Classical Novae. II. Color-Magnitude Diagram
• Concurrent Formation of Carbon and Silicate Dust in Nova V1280 Sco
• The Distances of the Galactic Novae
• The inside-out planetary nebula around a born-again star
• The $UBV$ Color Evolution of Classical Novae. III. Time-Stretched Color-Magnitude Diagram of Novae in Outburst
• Photoionization modeling of the dusty nova V1280 Scorpii
• Discovery of a Long-Lived, High Amplitude Dusty Infrared Transient
• Discovery of Metastable Helium Absorption Lines in V1280 Scorpii
• Morpho-kinematic modeling of the expanding ejecta of the extremely slow nova V1280 Scorpii
• A search and modeling of peculiar narrow transient line components in novae spectra