Optical and Near-Infrared Polarimetry of Highly Reddened Type Ia Supernova 2014J: Peculiar Properties of Dust in M82

Abstract

We presented optical and near-infrared multi-band linear polarimetry of the highly reddened Type Ia SN~2014J appeared in M82. SN~2014J exhibits large polarization at shorter wavelengths, e.g., $4.8$\% in $B$ band, and the polarization decreases rapidly at longer wavelengths, with the position angle of the polarization remaining at approximately $40^{\circ }$ over the observed wavelength range. These polarimetric properties suggest that the observed polarization is likely to be caused predominantly by the interstellar dust within M82. Further analysis shows that the polarization peaks at a wavelengths much shorter than those obtained for the Galactic dust. The wavelength dependence of the polarization can be better described by an inverse power law rather than by Serkowski law for Galactic interstellar polarization. These suggests that the nature of the dust in M82 may be different from that in our Galaxy, with polarizing dust grains having a mean radius of $<0.1\mu$m.

8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (10)

• Spectropolarimetry of Supernovae
• Improved Distances to Type Ia Supernovae with Two Spectroscopic Subclasses
• Optical and Near-Infrared Observations of the Highly Reddened, Rapidly Expanding Type Ia Supernova 2006X in M100
• Extensive HST Ultraviolet Spectra and Multi-wavelength Observations of SN 2014J in M82 Indicate Reddening and Circumstellar Scattering by Typical Dust
• The rise of SN2014J in the nearby galaxy M82
• No X-rays from the very nearby Type Ia SN2014J: constraints on its environment
• Constraints on the progenitor system and the environs of SN 2014J from deep radio observations
• Constraints on the Progenitor System of the Type Ia Supernova 2014J from Pre-Explosion Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
• Diffuse Interstellar Bands vs. Known Atomic and Molecular Species in the Interstellar Medium of M82 toward SN 2014J
• Dense molecular clouds in the SN2008fp host galaxy

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• Physical Dust Models for the Extinction toward Supernova 2014J in M82
• Interstellar-Medium Mapping in M82 Through Light Echoes Around Supernova 2014J
• Estimating dust distances to Type Ia supernovae from colour excess time-evolution
• Properties of interstellar dust responsible for extinction laws with unusually low total-to-selective extinction ratios of Rv=1-2
• Exploration of Aspherical Ejecta Properties in Type Ia Supernova: Progenitor Dependence and Applications to Progenitor Classification
• Measurement of Interstellar Polarization and Estimation of Galactic Extinction for the Direction of X-ray Black Hole Binary V404 Cygni
• The Effects of Circumstellar Dust Scattering on the Light Curves and Polarizations of Type Ia Supernovae
• $R_V$ from multi-waveband galaxy polarimetry in supernovae vicinity
• On the Time Variation of Dust Extinction and Gas Absorption for Type~Ia Supernovae Observed Through Non-uniform Interstellar Medium
• An imaging polarimetry survey of Type Ia supernovae: are peculiar extinction and polarization properties produced by circumstellar or interstellar matter?