Photometric and Spectroscopic study of a highly reddened type Ia supernova SN 2003hx in NGC 2076

TL;DR

This study presents detailed photometric and spectroscopic observations of the highly reddened Type Ia supernova SN 2003hx, analyzing its light curves, spectra, and dust properties to understand its characteristics and explosion parameters.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive photometric and spectroscopic analysis of SN 2003hx, including dust extinction properties and bolometric luminosity, highlighting its normal Type Ia nature despite high reddening.

Findings

SN 2003hx reached B-band maximum at magnitude 14.92

Estimated E(B-V) = 0.56 indicating high reddening

Ejected approximately 0.66 solar masses of $^{56}$Ni

Abstract

We present $UBVRI$ CCD photometry and optical spectra of the type Ia supernova SN 2003hx which appeared in the galaxy NGC 2076, obtained till $\sim$ 146 days after the epoch of $B$ band maximum. The supernova reached at maximum brightness in $B$ band on JD 245 2893 $\pm$ 1.0 with an apparent magnitude of 14.92 $\pm$ 0.01 mag which was estimated by making template fits to the light curves. SN 2003hx is an example of a highly reddened supernova with $E(B-V)$ = 0.56 $\pm$ 0.23. We estimate $R_v$ = 1.97 $\pm$ 0.54 which indicates the small size of dust particles as compared to their galactic counterparts. The luminosity decline rate is $\Delta m_{15}(B)$ = 1.17 $\pm$ 0.12 mag and the absolute $B$ band magnitude obtained from the luminosity versus decline rate relation (Phillips et al. 1999) is $M^B_{max}$ = -19.20 $\pm$ 0.18 mag. The peak bolometric luminosity indicates that $\sim$ 0.66 $M_\odot$ mass of $^{56}$ Ni was ejected by the supernova. The spectral evolution indicates the supernova to be a normal type Ia event.