A Type Ia supernova at the heart of superluminous transient SN 2006gy

Abstract

Superluminous supernovae radiate up to 100 times more energy than normal supernovae. The origin of this energy and the nature of their stellar progenitors are poorly understood. We identify neutral iron lines in the spectrum of one such transient, SN 2006gy, and show that they require a large mass of iron (>~0.3 Msun) expanding at 1500 km/s. We demonstrate that a model of a standard Type Ia supernova hitting a shell of circumstellar material produces a light curve and late-time iron-dominated spectrum that match SN 2006gy. In such a scenario, common envelope evolution of the progenitor system can synchronize envelope ejection and supernova explosion and may explain these bright transients.

Author version of paper published in Science on Jan 24 2020

References in corpus (13)

• Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Pulsational pair instability as an explanation for the most luminous supernovae
• SN 2006gy: An extremely luminous supernova in the galaxy NGC 1260
• SN 2006tf: Precursor Eruptions and the Optically Thick Regime of Extremely Luminous Type IIn Supernovae
• Shell-shocked diffusion model for the light curve of SN2006gy
• Light Curve Modeling of Superluminous Supernova 2006gy: Collision between Supernova Ejecta and Dense Circumstellar Medium
• Investigating the properties of stripped-envelope supernovae, what are the implications for their progenitors?
• A hybrid type Ia supernova with an early flash triggered by helium-shell detonation
• Numerical simulations of super-luminous supernovae of type IIn
• Numerical models of collisions between core-collapse supernovae and circumstellar shells
• Late-time observations of SN2006gy: Still Going Strong
• Emission line models for the lowest-mass core collapse supernovae. I: Case study of a 9 $M_{\odot }$ one-dimensional neutrino-driven explosion
• Type Ia supernovae within dense carbon-oxygen rich envelopes: a model for 'Super-Chandrasekhar' explosions?

Cited by in corpus (28)

• The Palomar Transient Factory Core-Collapse Supernova Host-Galaxy Sample. I. Host-Galaxy Distribution Functions and Environment-Dependence of CCSNe
• Magnetorotational supernovae: A nucleosynthetic analysis of sophisticated 3D models
• Early spectral evolution of classical novae: consistent evidence for multiple distinct outflows
• Core-collapse supernova simulations and the formation of neutron stars, hybrid stars, and black holes
• Simulations of common envelope evolution in triple systems: Circumstellar case
• Helium stars exploding in circumstellar material and the origin of Type Ibn supernovae
• 2D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of supernova ejecta with a central power source
• A Carbon/Oxygen-dominated Atmosphere Days After Explosion for the "Super-Chandrasekhar" Type Ia SN 2020esm
• Less than 1% of Core-Collapse Supernovae in the local universe occur in elliptical galaxies
• A systematic study on the rise time-peak luminosity relation for bright optical transients powered by wind shock breakout
• The CO White Dwarf + Intermediate Mass/Massive Star Binary Evolution: Possible Merger Origins for Peculiar Type Ia and II Supernovae
• An H-alpha survey of the host environments of 77 type IIn supernovae within z<0.02
• Oxygen and calcium nebular emission line relationships in core-collapse supernovae and Ca-rich transients
• Extremely energetic supernova explosions embedded in a massive circumstellar medium: the case of SN 2016aps
• Constraining bright optical counterparts of Fast Radio Bursts
• SN 2021adxl: A luminous nearby interacting supernova in an extremely low metallicity environment
• Sample of hydrogen-rich superluminous supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• The Interaction of Supernova 2018evt with a Substantial Amount of Circumstellar Matter -- An SN1997cy-like Event
• Early excess emission in Type Ia supernovae from the interaction between supernova ejecta and their circumstellar wind
• Early light curves of Type II supernovae interacting with a circumstellar disk
• Do Type Ia Supernovae Explode Inside Planetary Nebulae?
• SN 2020uem: A Possible Thermonuclear Explosion within A Dense Circumstellar Medium (I) The Nature of Type IIn/Ia-CSM SNe from Photometry and Spectroscopy
• White dwarf -- red giant star binaries as Type Ia supernova progenitors: with and without magnetic confinement
• A puzzle solved after two decades: SN 2002gh among the brightest of superluminous supernovae
• Stellar evolution, SN explosion, and nucleosynthesis
• High Cadence TESS and ground-based data of SN 2019esa, the less energetic sibling of SN 2006gy
• Two years of optical and NIR observations of the superluminous supernova UID 30901 discovered by the UltraVISTA SN survey
• Discovering Supernovae at Epoch of Reionization with Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope