2021ApJ...915...80L -
Astrophys. J., 915, 80-80 (2021/July-2)
Fast blue optical transients due to circumstellar interaction and the mysterious supernova SN 2018gep.
LEUNG S.-C., FULLER J. and NOMOTO K.
Abstract (from CDS):
The discovery of SN 2018gep (ZTF 18abukavn) challenged our understanding of the late-phase evolution of massive stars and their supernovae (SNe). The fast rise in luminosity of this SN (spectroscopically classified as a broad-lined Type Ic SN) indicates that the ejecta interacts with a dense circumstellar medium (CSM), while an additional energy source such as 56Ni decay is required to explain the late-time light curve. These features hint at the explosion of a massive star with pre-SN mass loss. In this work, we examine the physical origins of rapidly evolving astrophysical transients like SN 2018gep. We investigate the wave-driven mass-loss mechanism and how it depends on model parameters such as progenitor mass and deposition energy, searching for stellar progenitor models that can reproduce the observational data. A model with an ejecta mass ∼2 M☉, explosion energy ∼1052 erg, a CSM of mass ∼0.3 M☉ and radius ∼1000 R☉, and a 56Ni mass ∼0.3 M☉ provides a good fit to the bolometric light curve. We also examine how interaction-powered light curves depend more generally on these parameters and how ejecta velocities can help break degeneracies. We find both wave-driven mass loss and mass ejection via pulsational pair instability can plausibly create the dense CSM in SN 2018gep, but we favor the latter possibility.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Journal keyword(s):
Supernovae - Supernova dynamics - Stellar pulsations - Radiative transfer - Light curves
Simbad objects:
12
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