Direct Analysis of the Broad-Line SN 2019ein: Connection with the Core-Normal SN 2011fe

Abstract

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are important cosmological probes and contributors to galactic nucleosynthesis, particularly of the iron group elements. To improve both their reliability as cosmological probes and to understand galactic chemical evolution, it is vital to understand the binary progenitor system and explosion mechanism. The classification of SNe Ia into Branch groups has led to some understanding of the similarities and differences among the varieties of observed SNe Ia. Branch groups are defined by the pseudo equivalent widths of the two prominent Si lines, leading to four distinct groups: Core-Normal (CN), Shallow-Silicon (SS), Cool (CL), and Broad-Line (BL). However, partly due to small sample size, little work has been done on the BL group. We perform direct spectral analysis on the pre-maximum spectra of the BL SN 2019ein, comparing and contrasting to the CN SN 2011fe. Both SN 2019ein and SN 2011fe were first observed spectroscopically within two days of discovery, allowing us to follow the spectroscopic evolution of both supernovae in detail. We find that the optical depths of the primary features of both the CN and BL supernovae are very similar, except that there is a Doppler shift between them. We further examine the BL group and show that for nine objects with pre-maximum spectra in the range −6 -−2 days with respect to 𝐵-maximum all the emission peaks of the Si 𝜆6355 line of BL are blueshifted pre-maximum, suggesting a possible classification criterion.