Simulating a Stellar Binary Merger. II. Obtaining a Light Curve*

Abstract

Luminous red novae are enigmatic transient events distinguished by a rapid rise in luminosity, a plateau in luminosity, and spectra, which become redder with time. The best-observed system before, during, and after the outburst is V1309 Sco. We model a candidate V1309 Sco progenitor binary configuration (1.52 + 0.16 M⊙) using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code StarSmasher with a modified energy equation that implements flux-limited emission-diffusion radiative transport in a Lagrangian case. We developed an imaging technique allowing us to capture the flux an observer would measure. In this novel method, the outgoing radiative flux of each SPH particle in the observer's direction is attenuated by other particles along the path to the observer. We investigated how the light curve is affected in various models: with and without dust formation; constant, Planck, or Rosseland mean opacities; different donor star sizes; different companion star masses and types; radiative heating included in our modified energy equation; and different SPH simulation resolutions. The resulting evolution in bolometric luminosity and spectrum peak temperature is in good agreement with V1309 Sco observations. Our simulations rule out V1309 Sco models that do not assume dust formation.