A hot and fast ultra-stripped supernova that likely formed a compact neutron star binary

K De; M M Kasliwal; E O Ofek; T J Moriya; J Burke; Y Cao; S B Cenko; G B Doran; G E Duggan; R P Fender; C Fransson; A Gal-Yam; A Horesh; S R Kulkarni; R R Laher; R Lunnan; I Manulis; F Masci; P A Mazzali; P E Nugent; D A Perley; T Petrushevska; A L Piro; C Rumsey; J Sollerman; M Sullivan; F Taddia

doi:10.1126/science.aas8693

A hot and fast ultra-stripped supernova that likely formed a compact neutron star binary

Science. 2018 Oct 12;362(6411):201-206. doi: 10.1126/science.aas8693.

Authors

K De¹, M M Kasliwal², E O Ofek³, T J Moriya⁴, J Burke^{5

6}, Y Cao⁷, S B Cenko^{8

9}, G B Doran¹⁰, G E Duggan², R P Fender¹¹, C Fransson¹², A Gal-Yam³, A Horesh¹³, S R Kulkarni², R R Laher¹⁴, R Lunnan¹², I Manulis³, F Masci¹⁴, P A Mazzali^{15

16}, P E Nugent^{17

18}, D A Perley¹⁵, T Petrushevska^{19

20}, A L Piro²¹, C Rumsey²², J Sollerman¹², M Sullivan²³, F Taddia¹²

Affiliations

¹ Cahill Centre for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. kde@astro.caltech.edu.
² Cahill Centre for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
³ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Faculty of Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
⁴ Division of Theoretical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
⁵ Las Cumbres Observatory, 6740 Cortona Drive, Suite 102, Goleta, CA 93117, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
⁷ Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
⁸ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁹ Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
¹⁰ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK.
¹² Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
¹³ Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
¹⁴ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, MS 100-22, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹⁵ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK.
¹⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany.
¹⁷ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
¹⁹ Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁰ Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 11c, 5270 Ajdovščina, Slovenia.
²¹ The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA.
²² Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, 19 J J Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
²³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.

PMID: 30309948
DOI: 10.1126/science.aas8693

Abstract

Compact neutron star binary systems are produced from binary massive stars through stellar evolution involving up to two supernova explosions. The final stages in the formation of these systems have not been directly observed. We report the discovery of iPTF 14gqr (SN 2014ft), a type Ic supernova with a fast-evolving light curve indicating an extremely low ejecta mass (≈0.2 solar masses) and low kinetic energy (≈2 × 10⁵⁰ ergs). Early photometry and spectroscopy reveal evidence of shock cooling of an extended helium-rich envelope, likely ejected in an intense pre-explosion mass-loss episode of the progenitor. Taken together, we interpret iPTF 14gqr as evidence for ultra-stripped supernovae that form neutron stars in compact binary systems.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.