Fast Blue Optical Transients Due to Circumstellar Interaction and the Mysterious Supernova SN 2018gep

Leung, Shing-Chi; Fuller, Jim; Nomoto, Ken’ichi

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abfcbe

Cited by 30 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 98 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As shown in Leung et al ( , 2021, an ejected mass of ∼10 −2 -10 −1 M e with a radius of 10 2 -10 4 R e can power luminous SNe via CSM interaction, which explains some rapidly brightening transients with a rise time of ∼10 days and a peak luminosity ∼10 44 erg s −1 . The expected M CSM is much smaller than the required values for most of our models, so we expect rapidly rising H-poor transients to be uncommon (if the CSM is generated by wave heating).…”

Section: Csm Dep Ej Depmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Additionally, the circumstellar medium can greatly affect the light curve of the subsequent supernova (Suzuki et al 2019). The outburst mass and energy expected from wave heating are approximately capable of matching some well-observed transients such as SN 2000kf (Ouchi & Maeda 2021) and SN 2018gep (Leung et al 2021).…”

Section: Dynamical Evolution Of Massive Starsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Here we study the hydrodynamical response of the envelope due to wave energy deposition. In Leung et al (2021), we demonstrated that how fast the energy is deposited affects the envelope expansion. When the energy deposition timescale is shorter than the dynamical timescale, the excited envelope develops a shock and ejects mass in the form of a pulse.…”

Section: Connection To Rapid Transientsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In Leung et al (2021) we used a parameterized wave model to study how the stellar envelope of a H-poor star responds to the wave energy deposition. Depending on the energy deposition and duration, we estimated that the typical mass loss can reach ∼10 −5 -10 −2 M e .…”

Section: Motivation and Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This corresponds approximately to the time before explosion of any pre-supernova mass ejection that occurs. However, whether or not the star ejects mass must be determined by hydrodynamic simulations of the envelope's response to wave heating (e.g., Section 4 in this article and Leung et al 2021).…”

Section: Distribution Of Deposition Timescalementioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Wave-driven Mass Loss of Stripped Envelope Massive Stars: Progenitor-dependence, Mass Ejection, and Supernovae

Leung

Fuller

2021

ApJ

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The discovery of rapidly rising and fading supernovae powered by circumstellar interaction has suggested the pre-supernova mass eruption phase as a critical phenomenon in massive star evolution. It is important to understand the mass and radial extent of the circumstellar medium (CSM) from theoretically predicted mass ejection mechanisms. In this work, we study the wave heating process in massive hydrogen-poor stars, running a suite of stellar models in order to predict the wave energy and pre-explosion timescale of surface energy deposition. We survey stellar models with main-sequence progenitor masses from 20–70 M ⊙ and metallicity from 0.002–0.02. Most of these models predict that less than ∼1047 erg is deposited in the envelope, with the majority of the energy deposited in the last week of stellar evolution. This translates to CSM masses less than ∼10−2 M ⊙ that extend to less than ∼1014 cm, too small to greatly impact the light curves or spectra of the subsequent supernovae, except perhaps during the shock breakout phase. However, a few models predict somewhat higher wave energy fluxes, for which we perform hydrodynamical simulations of the mass ejection process. Radiative transfer simulations of the subsequent supernovae predict a bright but brief shock-cooling phase that could be detected in some Type Ib/c supernovae if they are discovered within a couple days of explosion.

show abstract

Section: Csm Dep Ej Depmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Dynamical Evolution Of Massive Starsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Connection To Rapid Transientsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Motivation and Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Distribution Of Deposition Timescalementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Wave-driven Mass Loss of Stripped Envelope Massive Stars: Progenitor-dependence, Mass Ejection, and Supernovae

Leung

Fuller

2021

ApJ

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Slim-disk modeling reveals an accreting intermediate-mass black hole in the luminous fast blue optical transient AT2018cow

Cao,

Jonker,

Wen

et al. 2024

A&A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The origin of the most luminous subclass of the fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) is still unknown. We present an X--ray spectral analysis of AT2018cow --- the LFBOT archetype --- using NuSTAR Swift and XMM-Newton data. The source spectrum can be explained by the presence of a slim accretion disk, and we find that the mass accretion rate decreases to sub--Eddington levels gtrsim 200 days after the source's discovery. Applying our slim-disk model to data obtained at multiple observational epochs, we constrain the mass of the central compact object in AT2018cow to be log($M_ bullet /M_ odot $ at the 68<!PCT!> confidence level. Our mass measurement is independent from, but consistent with, the results from previously employed methods. The mass constraint is consistent with both the tidal disruption and the black hole--star merger scenarios, if the latter model can be extrapolated to the measured black hole mass. Our work provides evidence for an accreting intermediate--mass black hole ($10^ M_ odot $) as the central engine in AT2018cow, and, by extension, in LFBOT sources similar to AT2018cow.

show abstract

Real-time discovery of AT2020xnd: a fast, luminous ultraviolet transient with minimal radioactive ejecta

Perley

Yao

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The many unusual properties of the enigmatic AT2018cow suggested that at least some subset of the empirical class of fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) represents a genuinely new astrophysical phenomenon. Unfortunately, the intrinsic rarity and fleeting nature of these events have made it difficult to identify additional examples early enough to acquire the observations necessary to constrain theoretical models. We present here the Zwicky Transient Facility discovery of AT2020xnd (ZTF20acigmel, the “Camel”) at z = 0.243, the first unambiguous AT2018cow analog to be found and confirmed in real time. AT2018cow and AT2020xnd share all key observational properties: a fast optical rise, sustained high photospheric temperature, absence of a second peak attributable to ejection of a radioactively-heated stellar envelope, extremely luminous radio, millimetre, and X-ray emission, and a dwarf-galaxy host. This supports the argument that AT2018cow-like events represent a distinct phenomenon from slower-evolving radio-quiet supernovae, likely requiring a different progenitor or a different central engine. The sample properties of the four known members of this class to date disfavour tidal disruption models but are consistent with the alternative model of an accretion powered jet following the direct collapse of a massive star to a black hole. Contextual filtering of alert streams combined with rapid photometric verification using multi-band imaging provides an efficient way to identify future members of this class, even at high redshift.

show abstract

Fast Blue Optical Transients Due to Circumstellar Interaction and the Mysterious Supernova SN 2018gep

Cited by 30 publications

References 98 publications

Wave-driven Mass Loss of Stripped Envelope Massive Stars: Progenitor-dependence, Mass Ejection, and Supernovae

Wave-driven Mass Loss of Stripped Envelope Massive Stars: Progenitor-dependence, Mass Ejection, and Supernovae

Slim-disk modeling reveals an accreting intermediate-mass black hole in the luminous fast blue optical transient AT2018cow

Real-time discovery of AT2020xnd: a fast, luminous ultraviolet transient with minimal radioactive ejecta

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About