J/ApJS/272/28 R-band nova LCs in the bulge region of M31 (Clark+, 2024)
Exploring the maximum magnitude versus rate of decline relation for novae in
M31.
Clark J.G., Hornoch K., Shafter A.W., Kucakova H., Vrastil J.,
Kusnirak P., Wolf M.
<Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser., 272, 28 (2024)>
=2024ApJS..272...28C 2024ApJS..272...28C
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, nearby; Novae; Photometry; Optical; Magnitudes, absolute
Keywords: Andromeda Galaxy ; Cataclysmic variable stars ; Novae ;
Recurrent novae ; Time domain astronomy
Abstract:
The results of a two-decade-long R-band photometric survey of novae in
M31 are presented. From these data, R-band light curves have been
determined for 180 novae with data sufficient for estimating the peak
brightness and subsequent rate of decline. The data show a weak
correlation of peak brightness with fade rate consistent with the
well-known maximum magnitude versus rate of decline (MMRD) relation.
As generally appreciated for Galactic novae, the large scatter in the
MMRD relation precludes its use in determining distances to individual
novae. The novae at maximum light are distributed with standard
deviation σ=0.89mag about a mean R-band absolute magnitude given
by <MR≥-7.57±0.07. The overall M31 luminosity distribution is in
excellent agreement with that found for Galactic novae suggesting that
the nova populations in M31 and the Galaxy are quite similar. The
notion that all novae can be characterized by a standard luminosity
15d after maximum light (M15) is also explored. Surprisingly, the
distribution of M15 values is characterized by a standard deviation
only slightly smaller than that for novae at maximum light and thus
offers little promise for precise extragalactic distance
determinations. A dozen faint and fast novae that are likely to be
previously unidentified recurrent novae have been identified from
their position in the MMRD plot and in the M15 distribution.
Description:
The majority of observations presented here have been obtained using
the 0.65m reflector at the Ondrejov Observatory (OO; operated partly
by the Charles University, Prague) and the 0.35m telescope in the
private observatory of K.H. at Lelekovice. For complementary
observations a variety of additional telescopes were also used (Danish
1.54m telescope at European Southern Observatory, ING:Newton - Isaac
Newton Group's Isaac Newton Telescope, CAO:1.2m - Calar Alto
Observatory's 1.2 meter Telescope, VATT - Vatican Advanced Technology
Telescope, BAT - Bolshoi Azimuthal Telescope, Hiltner - MDM
Observatory's 2.4m Hiltner Telescope, BOOTES - (BOOTES-2), WIYN:0.9m -
WIYN 0.9m Observatory at Kitt Peak National Observatory, WIYN -
Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO Telescope). The total exposure time of
each series of images varied from a few minutes up to about 1hr.
Overall, our sample includes 180 novae for which the temporal coverage
was sufficient to characterize the R-band light curves.
The spatial coverage of our nova survey covers ΔRA∼34' and
ΔDE∼26' centered on the nucleus of M31 --a region which is
heavily dominated by the galaxy's bulge population.
The R-band light curves from our complete sample of M31 novae from
2002 to 2022 are presented in Figure 1.
Objects:
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RA (ICRS) DE Designation(s)
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00 42 44.33 +41 16 07.5 M31 = NAME Andromeda Galaxy
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File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 82 84 Linear nova light curve parameters
table2.dat 115 53 Break nova light curve parameters
table3.dat 82 27 Jitter nova light curve parameters
table4.dat 82 17 Recurrent nova light curve parameters
table5.dat 47 12 Predicted recurrent novae
fig1.dat 38 4479 The R-band light curves for the 180 novae in
our M31 sample
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See also:
J/AJ/131/2478 : M31 and M33 UBVRI photometry (Massey+, 2006)
J/A+A/465/375 : X-ray monitoring of optical novae in M31 (Pietsch+, 2007)
J/A+A/477/67 : M31 novae from Schmidt plates (Henze+, 2008)
J/AJ/140/34 : Classification of nova light curves (Strope+, 2010)
J/ApJ/734/12 : Survey of novae in M31 (Shafter+, 2011)
J/A+A/533/A52 : X-ray monitoring of M31 novae (Henze+, 2011)
J/AJ/146/86 : Cosmicflows-2 catalog (Tully+, 2013)
J/A+A/563/A2 : X-ray monitoring of M31 novae (Henze+, 2014)
J/ApJ/936/117 : H-alpha KPNO photometry of M31 novae (Rector+, 2022)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table[1-4].dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 8 A8 --- M31N Nova designation (YYYY-MMa)
10 A1 --- f_M31N [ab] Flag on M31N (only for Table 4) (1)
12- 17 A6 --- Sample Sample description (G1)
19- 26 F8.3 --- JD [2490.5/9896.3]? Julian Date of maximum;
JD-2450000
28- 32 F5.2 mag Rmag [14.26/19.2]? R band maximum apparent magnitude
34- 37 F4.2 mag e_Rmag [0.01/0.6]? Uncertainty in Rmag
39- 44 F6.2 mag RMag [-10.3/-5.36] R band maximum absolute magnitude
46- 49 F4.2 mag e_RMag [0.04/0.61] Uncertainty in Rmag
51- 55 F5.1 d t2 [1.8/483] Time to decline 2 magnitudes
57- 61 F5.1 d e_t2 [0.1/152] Uncertainty in t2
63- 66 F4.2 [d] logt2 [0.26/2.7] Log of the time to decline 2mag
68- 71 F4.2 [d] e_logt2 [0.02/0.5] Uncertainty in logt2
73- 77 F5.2 mag M15 [-9.03/-1.8]? Absolute magnitude 15 days after
maximum
79- 82 F4.2 mag e_M15 [0.1/2.11]? Uncertainty in M15
84- 87 F4.1 d tBR [1.9/79.5]? Time of fade break from maximum
(only for Table 2)
89- 92 F4.1 d e_tBR [0.3/11.8]? Uncertainty in tBR
94- 98 F5.2 mag RmagBR [16/20.4]? Apparent R band magnitude at tBR
(only for Table 2)
100-103 F4.2 mag e_RmagBR [0.1/0.5]? Uncertainty in RmagBR
105-109 F5.3 mag/d f2nd [0.004/0.3]? Second fade rate from peak
brightness (only for Table 2)
111-115 F5.3 mag/d e_f2nd [0.003/0.2]? Uncertainty in f2nd
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Note (1): Flag as follows:
a = Data from Shafter+ 2023RNAAS...7..191S 2023RNAAS...7..191S
b = Newly-identified RN (see Shafter+ 2024RNAAS...8....5S 2024RNAAS...8....5S, for
determination of parameter values).
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table5.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 8 A8 --- M31N Recurrent nova designation (YYYY-MMa)
10- 15 A6 --- Sample Sample description (G1)
17- 21 F5.2 mag Rmag [-8.2/-5.36] R band maximum apparent magnitude
23- 26 F4.2 mag e_Rmag [0.1/0.22] Uncertainty in Rmag
28- 31 F4.1 d t2 [3.4/32.2] Time to decline 2 magnitudes
33- 36 F4.1 d e_t2 [0.5/12.1] Uncertainty in t2
38- 42 F5.2 mag M15 [-4.9/-1.8] Absolute magnitude 15 days after
maximum
44- 47 F4.2 mag e_M15 [0.2/2.11] Uncertainty in M15
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: fig1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 A4 --- --- [M31N]
6- 13 A8 --- M31N Nova designation (YYYY-MMa)
16- 23 F8.3 d JD [2490.52/9909.53] Julian Date of observation;
JD-2450000
26 A1 --- Filt Filter bandpass (Cousins "R" or Sloan "r")
28 A1 --- l_mag Lower limit on mag
29- 33 F5.2 mag mag [0.22/23] Apparent magnitude in Filter
35- 38 F4.2 mag e_mag [0/0.7]? Uncertainty in mag
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Global notes:
Note (G1): Following the convention of Schaefer 2018MNRAS.481.3033S 2018MNRAS.481.3033S, these
novae having the best determined parameters make up our "Gold" sample,
with the remaining 51 novae with high quality light curves making up
our "Silver" sample. All remaining novae comprise our "Bronze" nova
sample.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 14-Aug-2024