Calcium-rich Gap Transients: Solving the Calcium Conundrum in the Intracluster Medium

Abstract

X-ray measurements suggest the abundance of Calcium in the intracluster medium is higher than can be explained using favored models for core-collapse and Type Ia supernovae alone. We investigate whether the Calcium conundrum in the intracluster medium can be alleviated by including a contribution from the recently discovered subclass of supernovae known as Calcium-rich gap transients. Although the Calcium-rich gap transients make up only a small fraction of all supernovae events, we find that their high Calcium yields are sufficient to reproduce the X-ray measurements found for nearby rich clusters. We find the ${\chi }^2$ goodness-of-fit metric improves from 84 to 2 by including this new class. Moreover, Calcium-rich supernovae preferentially occur in the outskirts of galaxies making it easier for the nucleosynthesis products of these events to be incorporated in the intracluster medium via ram-pressure stripping. The discovery of a Calcium-rich gap transients in clusters and groups far from any individual galaxy suggests supernovae associated with intracluster stars may play an important role in enriching the intracluster medium. Calcium-rich gap transients may also help explain anomalous Calcium abundances in many other astrophysical systems including individual stars in the Milky Way, the halos of nearby galaxies and the circumgalactic medium. Our work highlights the importance of considering the diversity of supernovae types and corresponding yields when modeling the abundance of the intracluster medium and other gas reservoirs.

References in corpus (4)

• Strangulation in Galaxy Groups
• Constraining supernova models using the hot gas in clusters of galaxies
• Gas stripping in galaxy groups - the case of the starburst spiral NGC 2276
• The metal contents of two groups of galaxies

Cited by in corpus (27)

• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives
• High-precision abundances of elements in solar twin stars: Trends with stellar age and elemental condensation temperature
• Inflow, Outflow, Yields, and Stellar Population Mixing in Chemical Evolution Models
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe I: Systematic search for Calcium rich gap transients reveal three related spectroscopic sub-classes
• Solar abundance ratios of the iron-peak elements in the Perseus Cluster
• High-precision abundances of Sc, Mn, Cu, and Ba in solar twins. Trends of element ratios with stellar age
• Two New Calcium-Rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments
• Constraints on the Chemical Enrichment History of the Perseus Cluster of Galaxies from High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy
• Origin of central abundances in the hot intra-cluster medium - II. Chemical enrichment and supernova yield models
• CHEERS: The chemical evolution RGS sample
• The progenitors of calcium-rich transients are not formed in situ
• Abundance and temperature distributions in the hot intra-cluster gas of Abell 4059
• One-dimensional non-LTE time-dependent radiative transfer of an He-detonation model and the connection to faint and fast-decaying supernovae
• The Progenitors of Calcium-Strong Transients
• iPTF15eqv: Multi-wavelength Exposé of a Peculiar Calcium-rich Transient
• iPTF 16hgs: A double-peaked Ca-rich gap transient in a metal poor, star forming dwarf galaxy
• The volumetric rate of calcium-rich transients in the local universe
• The origins of Calcium-rich supernovae from disruptions of CO white-dwarfs by hybrid He-CO white-dwarfs
• Solar chemical composition in the hot gas of cool-core ellipticals, groups, and clusters of galaxies
• The peculiar Ca-rich SN 2019ehk: Evidence for a Type IIb core-collapse supernova from a low mass stripped progenitor
• Swift/BAT detection of hard X-rays from Tycho's Supernova Remnant: Evidence for Titanium-44
• The distant, galaxy cluster environment of the short GRB 161104A at $z\sim 0.8$ and a comparison to the short GRB host population
• The rise and fall of an extraordinary Ca-rich transient -- The discovery of ATLAS19dqr/SN 2019bkc
• The relationship between age, metallicity, and abundances for disk stars in a simulated Milky Way galaxy
• Nitrogen abundance in the X-ray halos of clusters and groups of galaxies
• Origin of the Galactic 511 keV emission from positrons produced in irregular supernovae
• Physical Properties of the Host Galaxies of Ca-rich Transients