Email RIS file
Bookmark
Report an Issue

Extreme supernova models for the super-luminous transient ASASSN-15LH [electronic resource].

Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. National Nuclear Security Administration, 2016.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Physical Description
Article numbers 94 : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators
Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States. National Nuclear Security Administration, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Access Online

Availability

I Want It
I Want It

Finding items...

Restrictions on Access
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
Summary
The recent discovery of the unprecedentedly super-luminous transient ASASSN-15lh (or SN 2015L) with its UV-bright secondary peak challenges all the power-input models that have been proposed for super-luminous supernovae. Here we examine some of the few viable interpretations of ASASSN-15lh in the context of a stellar explosion, involving combinations of one or more power inputs. We model the light curve of ASASSN-15lh with a hybrid model that includes contributions from magnetar spin-down energy and hydrogen-poor circumstellar interaction. We also investigate models of pure circumstellar interaction with a massive hydrogen-deficient shell and discuss the lack of interaction features in the observed spectra. We find that, as a supernova, ASASSN-15lh can be best modeled by the energetic core-collapse of an ~40 M ⊙ star interacting with a hydrogen-poor shell of ~20 M ⊙. The circumstellar shell and progenitor mass are consistent with a rapidly rotating pulsational pair-instability supernova progenitor as required for strong interaction following the final supernova explosion. Additional energy injection by a magnetar with an initial period of 1–2 ms and magnetic field of 0.1–1 × 1014 G may supply the excess luminosity required to overcome the deficit in single-component models, but this requires more fine-tuning and extreme parameters for the magnetar, as well as the assumption of efficient conversion of magnetar energy into radiation. As a result, we thus favor a single-input model where the reverse shock formed in a strong SN ejecta–circumstellar matter interaction following a very powerful core-collapse SN explosion can supply the luminosity needed to reproduce the late-time UV-bright plateau.
Report Numbers
E 1.99:la-ur--16-22014
la-ur--16-22014
Subject(s)
Other Subject(s)
Note
Published through SciTech Connect.
09/07/2016.
"la-ur--16-22014"
The Astrophysical Journal (Online) 828 2 ISSN 1538-4357 AM
Emmanouil Chatzopoulos; John C. Wheeler; J. Vinko; A. P. Nagy; Brandon Kerry Wiggins; Wesley Paul Even.
Funding Information
AC52-06NA25396
View MARC record | catkey: 23495467