Characterizing the first few days: young Type Ia supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility

by Mattia Bulla (Stockholm University)

Wednesday 13 May 2020, 13:30 → 14:30 Europe/Stockholm

Zoom [https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/530682073]

Type Ia supernovae are believed to originate from the thermonuclear explosion of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs in binary systems, but answers to the questions of when, why and how the explosions are triggered remain unclear. Observations of Type Ia supernovae in the first few days after explosion are a powerful discriminant between different models. However, these observations are challenging and thus have historically been limited to very nearby events. In this talk, I will present observations of 127 “young” Type Ia supernovae discovered in 2018 by the Zwicky Transient Facility, a survey that is extremely efficient in finding supernovae right after the explosion. I will show how studying the early-time lightcurve and color evolution for this unprecedented large sample can place constraints on the progenitor scenario and explosion mechanism of Type Ia supernovae.