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Complexity in the light curves and spectra of slow-evolving superluminous supernovae

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Inserra, C 
Nicholl, M 
Chen, T-W 
Jerkstrand, A 
Smartt, SJ 

Abstract

A small group of the newly discovered superluminous supernovae show broad and slow-evolving light curves. Here we present extensive observational data for the slow-evolving superluminous supernova LSQ14an, which brings this group of transients to four in total in the low-redshift Universe (z < 0.2; SN 2007bi, PTF12dam, SN 2015bn). We particularly focus on the optical and near-infrared evolution during the period from 50 d up to 400 d from peak, showing that they are all fairly similar in their light curve and spectral evolution. LSQ14an shows broad, blueshifted [O III] λλ4959, 5007 lines, as well as a blueshifted [O II] λλ7320, 7330 and [Ca II] λλ7291, 7323. Furthermore, the sample of these four objects shows common features. Semi-forbidden and forbidden emission lines appear surprisingly early at 50–70 d and remain visible with almost no variation up to 400 d. The spectra remain blue out to 400 d. There are small, but discernible light-curve fluctuations in all of them. The light curve of each shows a faster decline than 56Co after 150 d and it further steepens after 300 d. We also expand our analysis presenting X-ray limits for LSQ14an and SN 2015bn and discuss their diagnostic power. These features are quite distinct from the faster evolving superluminous supernovae and are not easily explained in terms of only a variation in ejecta mass. While a central engine is still the most likely luminosity source, it appears that the ejecta structure is complex, with multiple emitting zones and at least some interaction between the expanding ejecta and surrounding material.

Description

Keywords

stars: mass-loss, supernovae: individual: LSQ14an, supernovae: individual: SN2015bn, supernovae: individual: PTF12dam, supernovae: individual: SN2007bi, X-rays: general

Journal Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0035-8711
1365-2966

Volume Title

468

Publisher

Oxford University Press
Sponsorship
This work is based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile as part of PESSTO (the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects Survey) ESO programme 188.D-3003, 191.D-0935, 197.D-1075 and the X-Shooter programmes 093.D-0229, 092.D-0555. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement no [291222]. SJS acknowledges funding from STFC grants ST/I001123/1 and ST/L000709/1. This research was supported by the Munich Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics (MIAPP) of the DFG cluster of excellence ‘Origin and Structure of the Universe’. MF acknowledges the support of a Royal Society – Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship. KM acknowledges support from the STFC through an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship. TWC and TK acknowledge the support through the Sofia Kovalevskaja Award to P. Schady from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys (PS1) have been made possible through contributions of the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, the Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, Queen’s University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, and Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.