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arXiv · 1711.00876

No surviving companion in Kepler's supernova

Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente·Francesco Damiani·Luigi R. Bedin·Jonay I. Gonzalez Hernandez·Lluis Galbany·John Pritchard·Ramon Canal·Javier Mendez
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Abstract

We have surveyed Kepler's supernova remnant in search of the companion star of the explosion. We have gone as deep as 2.6 solar luminosities in the stars within 20% of the radius of the remnant. We use FLAMES at the VLT-UT2 telescope to obtain high resolution spectra of the stellar candidates selected from HST images. The resulting set of stellar parameters suggests that these stars come from a rather ordinary mixture of field stars (mostly giants). A few of the stars seem to have low [Fe/H] (< -1) and they are consistent with being metal-poor giants. The radial velocities and rotational velocities vrot sin i are very well determined. There are no fast rotating stars as vrot sin i < 20 km/s. The radial velocities from the spectra and the proper motions determined from HST images are compatible with those expected from the Besan\c{c}on model of the Galaxy. The strong limits placed on luminosity suggest that this supernova could have arisen either from the core-degenerate scenario or from the double-degenerate scenario.

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Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente, Francesco Damiani, Luigi R. Bedin, Jonay I. Gonzalez Hernandez, Lluis Galbany, John Pritchard, Ramon Canal, Javier Mendez. 2017-11-02. No surviving companion in Kepler's supernova. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Faac9c4

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