H$\alpha$ Luminosity of ATLAS18qtd Does Not Plateau in the Nebular Phase

Abstract

We present new spectroscopic and photometric observations of ATLAS18qtd/SN 2018cqj, a fast-declining Type Ia supernova with variable H$\alpha$ emission in previously-published nebular phase spectra. ATLAS18qtd is undetected in both spectroscopic and photometric observations which occurred at $\sim 540~\rm d$ after maximum light and $\sim 230~\rm d$ after the last H$\alpha$ detection. With these new non-detections, we place an upper limit on the H$\alpha$ luminosity of $\lesssim 1.1\times 10^{36}~\rm{erg}~\rm s^{-1}$ indicating the H$\alpha$ flux decreased by a factor of $\gtrsim 4$ since the previous detection. This upper limit excludes H$\alpha$ emission that plateaus or increases since the previous detection but cannot confirm that the H$\alpha$ emission decay rate is equivalent to the supernova decay rate.