Explaining iPTF14hls as a common envelope jets supernova

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel common envelope jets supernova model for iPTF14hls, involving a neutron star spiraling into a giant star's envelope, launching jets, ejecting circumstellar material, and merging with the core to produce the supernova explosion.

Contribution

It introduces a new scenario explaining iPTF14hls through neutron star interactions and jet ejections during a common envelope phase, which was not previously considered for this supernova.

Findings

Neutron star accretes ~0.3 solar masses during envelope interaction.

Ejection of tens of solar masses of circumstellar gas.

Neutron star merges with the core, triggering the explosion.

Abstract

We propose a common envelope jets supernova scenario for the enigmatic supernova iPTF14hls where a neutron star that spirals-in inside the envelope of a massive giant star accretes mass and launches jets that power the ejection of the circumstellar shell and a few weeks later the explosion itself. To account for the kinetic energy of the circumstellar gas and the explosion, the neutron star should accrete a mass of approximately 0.3 solar masses. The tens of solar masses of circumstellar gas that accounts for some absorption lines is ejected while the neutron star orbits for about one to several weeks inside the envelope of the giant star. In the last hours of the interaction the neutron star merges with the core, accretes mass, and launches jets that eject the core and the inner envelope to form the explosion itself and the medium where the supernova photosphere resides. The remaining neutron star accretes fallback gas and further powers the supernova. We attribute the 1954 pre-explosion outburst to an eccentric orbit and temporary mass accretion by the neutron star at periastron passage prior to the onset of the common envelope phase.