Exploring the optical behaviour of a type Iax supernova SN 2014dt

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed optical observations of the nearby Type Iax supernova SN 2014dt, revealing its light curve, spectral features, low ejecta velocities, and estimated nickel mass, contributing to understanding this supernova subtype.

Contribution

It provides comprehensive photometric and spectroscopic data of SN 2014dt, highlighting its similarities to SN 2005hk and offering insights into its explosion properties and low energy budget.

Findings

SN 2014dt reached a peak magnitude of -18.13 mag.

Ejecta velocities ranged from 5000 to 1000 km/s.

Estimated $^{56}$Ni mass was about 0.14 solar masses.

Abstract

We present optical photometric (upto $\sim$410 days since $B$$_{max}$) and spectroscopic (upto $\sim$157 days since $B$$_{max}$) observations of a Type Iax supernova (SN) 2014dt located in M61. SN 2014dt is one of the brightest and closest (D $\sim$ 20 Mpc) discovered Type Iax SN. SN 2014dt best matches the light curve evolution of SN 2005hk and reaches a peak magnitude of $M$$_B$ $\sim$-18.13$\pm$0.04 mag with $\Delta m_{15}$ $\sim$1.35$\pm 0.06$ mag. The early spectra of SN 2014dt are similar to other Type Iax SNe, whereas the nebular spectrum at 157 days is dominated by narrow emission features with less blending as compared to SNe 2008ge and 2012Z. The ejecta velocities are between 5000 to 1000 km sec$^{-1}$ which also confirms the low energy budget of Type Iax SN 2014dt as compared to normal Type Ia SNe. Using the peak bolometric luminosity of SN 2005hk we estimate $^{56}$Ni mass of $\sim$0.14 M$_{\odot}$ and the striking similarity between SN 2014dt and SN 2005hk implies that a comparable amount of $^{56}$Ni would have been synthesized in the explosion of SN 2014dt.