Nickel-rich outflows produced by the accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs: light curves and spectra
TLDR
In this paper, the authors present spherically symmetric radiative transfer calculations of the transient powered by the radioactive heating of this ejecta and explore the sensitivity of their results to uncertainties in the ejecta kinematics.Abstract:
The accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf to form a neutron star can leave behind a rotationally supported disc with mass of up to ~0.1 M ⊙ . The disc is initially composed of free nucleons but as it accretes and spreads to larger radii, the free nucleons recombine to form helium, releasing sufficient energy to unbind the remaining disc. Most of the ejected mass fuses to form 56 Ni and other iron group elements. We present spherically symmetric radiative transfer calculations of the transient powered by the radioactive heating of this ejecta. We estimate the ejecta composition using nucleosynthesis calculations in the literature and explore the sensitivity of our results to uncertainties in the ejecta kinematics. For an ejecta mass of 10 -2 M ⊙ (3 × 10 -3 M ⊙ , the light curve peaks after ≲1 d with a peak bolometric luminosity ≃2 x 10 41 erg s -1 (≃5 x 10 40 erg s -1 ); the decay time is ≃4(2) d. Overall, the spectra redden with time reaching U - V ≃ 4 after ≃1 d; the optical colours (B- V) are, however, somewhat blue. Near the peak in the light curve, the spectra are dominated by Doppler-broadened Nickel features, with no distinct spectral lines present. At ~3-5 d, strong calcium lines are present in the infrared, although the calcium mass fraction is only ~10 -4.5 . If rotationally supported discs are a common byproduct of AIC, current and upcoming transient surveys such as the Palomar Transient Factory should detect a few AIC per year for an AIC rate of ~10 -2 of the Type Ia rate. We discuss ways of distinguishing AIC from other rapid, faint transients, including .Ia's and the ejecta from binary neutron star mergers.read more
Citations
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The protomagnetar model for gamma-ray bursts
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Effect of a high opacity on the light curves of radioactively powered transients from compact object mergers
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the effect of heavy r-process elements, particularly the lanthanides, which increase the ejecta opacity by several orders of magnitude and include these higher opacities in time-dependent, multi-wavelength radiative transport calculations to predict the broadband light curves of one-dimensional models over a range of parameters (ejecta masses ~10−3-10−1 M ☉ and velocities ~0.1-0.3 c).
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Delayed outflows from black hole accretion tori following neutron star binary coalescence
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Effect of a High Opacity on the Light Curves of Radioactively Powered Transients from Compact Object Mergers
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the presence of heavy r-process elements, particularly the lanthanides, increase the ejecta opacity by several orders of magnitude, leading to much longer duration light curves.
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The Palomar Transient Factory: system overview, performance and first results
Nicholas M. Law,Shrinivas R. Kulkarni,Richard Dekany,Eran O. Ofek,Robert M. Quimby,Peter Nugent,Jason Surace,C. Grillmair,Joshua S. Bloom,Mansi M. Kasliwal,Lars Bildsten,Timothy M. Brown,S. Bradley Cenko,David R. Ciardi,Ernest Croner,S. George Djorgovski,Julian C. van Eyken,Alexei V. Filippenko,Derek B. Fox,Avishay Gal-Yam,David Hale,Nouhad Hamam,George Helou,John Henning,D. Andrew Howell,D. Andrew Howell,Janet Jacobsen,Russ R. Laher,S. Mattingly,D. McKenna,A. Pickles,Dovi Poznanski,Dovi Poznanski,Gustavo Rahmer,Arne Rau,Wayne Rosing,Michael M. Shara,Roger M. H. Smith,Dan L. Starr,Dan L. Starr,Mark Sullivan,Viswa Velur,Richard Walters,Jeff Zolkower +43 more
TL;DR: The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) as mentioned in this paper is a fully-automated, wide-field survey aimed at a systematic exploration of the optical transient sky.
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The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results
Nicholas M. Law,Shrinivas R. Kulkarni,Richard Dekany,Eran O. Ofek,R. M. Quimby,Peter Nugent,Jason Surace,C. Grillmair,Joshua S. Bloom,Mansi M. Kasliwal,Lars Bildsten,Timothy M. Brown,S. B. Cenko,David R. Ciardi,Ernest Croner,S. G. Djorgovski,J. C. van Eyken,Alexei V. Filippenko,D. B. Fox,Avishay Gal-Yam,David Hale,Nouhad Hamam,George Helou,John Henning,D. A. Howell,Janet Jacobsen,R. R. Laher,S. Mattingly,D. McKenna,A. Pickles,Dovi Poznanski,Gustavo Rahmer,A. Rau,Wayne Rosing,Michael M. Shara,Roger M. H. Smith,D. Starr,Mark Sullivan,V. Velur,R. Walters,J. Zolkower +40 more
TL;DR: The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) as mentioned in this paper is a fully-automated, wide-field survey aimed at a systematic exploration of the optical transient sky.