Newly formed dust within the circumstellar environment of SN Ia-CSM 2018evt
Lingzhi Wang, Maokai Hu, Lifan Wang, Yi Yang, Jiawen Yang, H. L. Gomez, Sijie Chen, Lei Hu, T. W. Chen, Jun Mo, Xiaofeng Wang, D. Baade, P. Hoêflich, J. C. Wheeler, G. Pignata, J. Burke, D. Hiramatsu, D. A. Howell, C. McCully, C. Pellegrino, L. Galbany, E. Y. Hsiao, David J. Sand, Jujia Zhang, S. A. Uddin, J. P. Anderson, C. Ashall, Cheng Cheng, M. Gromadzki, C. Inserra, Han Lin, N. Morrell, A. Morales-Garoffolo, T. E. Müller-Bravo, M. Nicholl, Estefania Padilla Gonzalez, M. M. Phillips, Jonathan Pineda-García, Hanna Sai, M. Smith, Melissa Shahbandeh, Shubham Srivastav, M. Stritzinger, S. Yang, D. R. Young, Lixin Yu, Xinghan Zhang
Abstract
Abstract Dust associated with various stellar sources in galaxies at all cosmic epochs remains a controversial topic, particularly whether supernovae play an important role in dust production. We report evidence of dust formation in the cold, dense shell behind the ejecta–circumstellar medium (CSM) interaction in the Type Ia-CSM supernova (SN) 2018evt three years after the explosion, characterized by a rise in mid-infrared emission accompanied by an accelerated decline in the optical radiation of the SN. Such a dust-formation picture is also corroborated by the concurrent evolution of the profiles of the Hα emission line. Our model suggests enhanced CSM dust concentration at increasing distances from the SN as compared to what can be expected from the density profile of the mass loss from a steady stellar wind. By the time of the last mid-infrared observations at day +1,041, a total amount of 1.2 ± 0.2 × 10 −2 M ⊙ of new dust has been formed by SN 2018evt, making SN 2018evt one of the most prolific dust factories among supernovae with evidence of dust formation. The unprecedented witness of the intense production procedure of dust may shed light on the perceptions of dust formation in cosmic history.