Explaining the type Ia supernova PTF 11kx with a violent-prompt merger scenario

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the peculiar features of the Type Ia supernova PTF 11kx can be explained by a violent prompt merger scenario involving a white dwarf and an AGB star's core, accounting for its circumstellar material and explosion timing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel violent prompt merger model for explaining the features of PTF 11kx, emphasizing a specific merger timing and process.

Findings

Explains the massive circumstellar shells within ~1000 AU.

Accounts for hydrogen presence and shell structures in CSM.

Proposes a merger scenario leading to prompt supernova explosion.

Abstract

We argue that the multiple shells of circumstellar material (CSM) and the supernovae (SN) ejecta interaction with the CSM starting 59 days after the explosion of the Type Ia SN (SN Ia) PTF 11kx, are best described by a violent prompt merger. In this prompt merger scenario the common envelope (CE) phase is terminated by a merger of a WD companion with the hot core of a massive asymptotic giant (AGB) star. In most cases the WD is disrupted and accreted onto the more massive core. However, in the rare cases where the merger takes place when the WD is denser than the core, the core will be disrupted and accreted onto the cooler WD. In such cases the explosion might occur with no appreciable delay, i.e., months to years after the termination of the CE phase. This, we propose, might be the evolutionary route that could lead to the explosion of PTF 11kx. This scenario can account for the very massive CSM within ~1000 AU of the exploding PTF 11kx star, for the presence of hydrogen, and for the presence of shells in the CSM.