The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2023)
Supernova 2020wnt: An Atypical Superluminous Supernova with a Hidden Central Engine
- Samaporn Tinyanont,
- Stan E. Woosley,
- Kirsty Taggart,
- Ryan J. Foley,
- Lin Yan,
- Ragnhild Lunnan,
- Kyle W. Davis,
- Charles D. Kilpatrick,
- Matthew R. Siebert,
- Steve Schulze,
- Chris Ashall,
- Ting-Wan Chen,
- Kishalay De,
- Georgios Dimitriadis,
- Dillon Z. Dong,
- Christoffer Fremling,
- Alexander Gagliano,
- Saurabh W. Jha,
- David O. Jones,
- Mansi M. Kasliwal,
- Hao-Yu Miao,
- Yen-Chen Pan,
- Daniel A. Perley,
- Vikram Ravi,
- César Rojas-Bravo,
- Itai Sfaradi,
- Jesper Sollerman,
- Vanessa Alarcon,
- Rodrigo Angulo,
- Karoli E. Clever,
- Payton Crawford,
- Cirilla Couch,
- Srujan Dandu,
- Atirath Dhara,
- Jessica Johnson,
- Zhisen Lai,
- Carli Smith
Affiliations
- Samaporn Tinyanont
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]; National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand , 260 Moo 4, Donkaew, Maerim, Chiang Mai, 50180, Thailand
- Stan E. Woosley
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Kirsty Taggart
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Ryan J. Foley
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Lin Yan
- ORCiD
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Ragnhild Lunnan
- ORCiD
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Kyle W. Davis
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Charles D. Kilpatrick
- ORCiD
- Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University , Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- Matthew R. Siebert
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Steve Schulze
- ORCiD
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Chris Ashall
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
- Ting-Wan Chen
- ORCiD
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Kishalay De
- ORCiD
- MIT-Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Georgios Dimitriadis
- ORCiD
- School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland
- Dillon Z. Dong
- ORCiD
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Christoffer Fremling
- ORCiD
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Alexander Gagliano
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , 1002 W. Green Street, IL 61801, USA
- Saurabh W. Jha
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019, USA
- David O. Jones
- ORCiD
- Gemini Observatory , NSF’s NOIRLab, 670 N. A’ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
- Mansi M. Kasliwal
- ORCiD
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Hao-Yu Miao
- ORCiD
- Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University , 300 Zhongda Road, Zhongli, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan
- Yen-Chen Pan
- ORCiD
- Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University , 300 Zhongda Road, Zhongli, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan
- Daniel A. Perley
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University , IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5RF, UK
- Vikram Ravi
- ORCiD
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- César Rojas-Bravo
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Itai Sfaradi
- ORCiD
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Jesper Sollerman
- ORCiD
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Vanessa Alarcon
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Rodrigo Angulo
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Karoli E. Clever
- ORCiD
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering and Bioinformatics, Baskin School of Engineering, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
- Payton Crawford
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Cirilla Couch
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Srujan Dandu
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Atirath Dhara
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Jessica Johnson
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Zhisen Lai
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA ; [email protected]
- Carli Smith
- Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc6c3
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 951,
no. 1
p. 34
Abstract
We present observations of a peculiar hydrogen- and helium-poor stripped-envelope (SE) supernova (SN) 2020wnt, primarily in the optical and near-infrared (near-IR). Its peak absolute bolometric magnitude of −20.9 mag ( L _bol, peak = (6.8 ± 0.3) × 10 ^43 erg s ^−1 ) and a rise time of 69 days are reminiscent of hydrogen-poor superluminous SNe (SLSNe I), luminous transients potentially powered by spinning-down magnetars. Before the main peak, there is a brief peak lasting <10 days post explosion, likely caused by interaction with circumstellar medium (CSM) ejected ∼years before the SN explosion. The optical spectra near peak lack a hot continuum and O ii absorptions, which are signs of heating from a central engine; they quantitatively resemble those of radioactivity-powered hydrogen/helium-poor Type Ic SESNe. At ∼1 yr after peak, nebular spectra reveal a blue pseudo-continuum and narrow O i recombination lines associated with magnetar heating. Radio observations rule out strong CSM interactions as the dominant energy source at +266 days post peak. Near-IR observations at +200–300 days reveal carbon monoxide and dust formation, which causes a dramatic optical light-curve dip. Pair-instability explosion models predict slow light curve and spectral features incompatible with observations. SN 2020wnt is best explained as a magnetar-powered core-collapse explosion of a 28 M _⊙ pre-SN star. The explosion kinetic energy is significantly larger than the magnetar energy at peak, effectively concealing the magnetar-heated inner ejecta until well after peak. SN 2020wnt falls into a continuum between normal SNe Ic and SLSNe I, and demonstrates that optical spectra at peak alone cannot rule out the presence of a central engine.
Keywords
