The New Status Qvo? SN 2021qvo is Another 2003fg-like Type Ia Supernova with a Rising Light-Curve Bump

TL;DR

SN 2021qvo, a 2003fg-like Type Ia supernova with a rising light-curve bump, provides new insights into the progenitor models involving circumstellar material interaction, supported by detailed photometric, spectroscopic, and modeling analyses.

Contribution

This paper reports the discovery and detailed analysis of SN 2021qvo, a 2003fg-like SN Ia with a rising light-curve bump, and tests the CSM interaction model for such features.

Findings

SN 2021qvo exhibits a clear early bump in its light curve.

The supernova has broader, more luminous characteristics than normal SNe Ia.

The bump can be modeled with a CSM mass of approximately 3.3-8.5 x 10^-3 solar masses.

Abstract

In recent years, multiple Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been observed with ''bumps'' in their rising light curves shortly after explosion. Here, we present SN 2021qvo: a SN Ia that exhibits a clear early bump in photometry obtained by the Young Supernova Experiment. Photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2021qvo show that it has a broader light curve, higher peak luminosity, shallower Si II $\lambda$5972 pseudo-equivalent width, and lower ejecta velocities than normal SNe Ia, which are all consistent with the characteristics of the 2003fg-like (often called ''super-Chandrasekhar") SN subtype. Including SN 2021qvo, just four known 2003fg-like SNe Ia have sufficient pre-peak data to reveal a rising light-curve bump, and all four have bump detections. Host-galaxy analysis reveals that SN 2021qvo exploded in a low-mass galaxy ${\rm log}(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot}) = 7.83^{+0.17}_{-0.24}$, also consistent with other members of this class. The current leading early-bump 2003fg-like SN Ia progenitor model involves an interaction between the circumstellar material (CSM) and the SN ejecta. We test the validity of this theory by modeling the early bump and subsequent light-curve evolution of SN 2021qvo with the Modular Open Source Fitter for Transients. We find that the bump can be modeled with a best-fit CSM mass in the range $M_\mathrm{CSM}=3.31-8.51 \times 10^{-3} M_\odot$. SN 2021qvo adds to the small but growing number of 2003fg-like SNe Ia with rising light-curve bumps; as the number of these SNe Ia with CSM estimates continues to grow, population-level inferences about the CSM distribution will be able to constrain the progenitor scenario for these SNe Ia.