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Title: Two New Calcium-rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments

Abstract

We present the Palomar Transient Factory discoveries and the photometric and spectroscopic observations of PTF11kmb and PTF12bho. We show that both transients have properties consistent with the class of calcium-rich gap transients, specifically lower peak luminosities and rapid evolution compared to ordinary supernovae, and a nebular spectrum dominated by [Ca ii] emission. A striking feature of both transients is their host environments: PTF12bho is an intracluster transient in the Coma Cluster, while PTF11kmb is located in a loose galaxy group, at a physical offset ~150 kpc from the most likely host galaxy. Deep Subaru imaging of PTF12bho rules out an underlying host system to a limit of MR > -8.0 mag, while Hubble Space Telescope imaging of PTF11kmb reveals a marginal counterpart that, if real, could be either a background galaxy or a globular cluster. Here, we show that the offset distribution of Ca-rich gap transients is significantly more extreme than that seen for SNe Ia or even short-hard gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). Thus, if the offsets are caused by a kick, they require higher kick velocities and/or longer merger times than sGRBs. Finally, we also show that almost all Ca-rich transients found to date are in group and cluster environmentsmore » with elliptical host galaxies, indicating a very old progenitor population; the remote locations could partially be explained by these environments having the largest fraction of stars in the intragroup/intracluster light following galaxy-galaxy interactions.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [4];  [7]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [3];  [9]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [11]; ORCiD logo [12]; ORCiD logo [13] more »; ORCiD logo [4];  [14]; ORCiD logo [15] « less
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy; Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). eScience Institute and Astronomy Dept.
  3. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Oskar Klein Centre, Physics Dept.
  4. Weizmann Inst. of Science, Rehovot (Israel). Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics and the Helen Kimmel Center for Planetary Science
  5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  6. Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Goleta, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  7. Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy
  9. Space Telescope Science Inst., Baltimore, MD (United States)
  10. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  11. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Spitzer Science Center
  12. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  13. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  14. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo (Japan). Optical and Infrared Astronomy Division
  15. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Infrared Processing and Analysis Center; California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Caltech Optical Observatories
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1393615
DOE Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; AST-1211916; AST-313484; 307260; NAS 5-26555; GBMF5076
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 836; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; supernovae; PTF11kmb; PTF12bho; PTF10hcw; SN2005E

Citation Formats

Lunnan, R., Kasliwal, M. M., Cao, Y., Hangard, L., Yaron, O., Parrent, J. T., McCully, C., Gal-Yam, A., Mulchaey, J. S., Ben-Ami, S., Filippenko, A. V., Fremling, C., Fruchter, A. S., Howell, D. A., Koda, J., Kupfer, T., Kulkarni, S. R., Laher, R., Masci, F., Nugent, P. E., Ofek, E. O., Yagi, M., and Yan, Lin. Two New Calcium-rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/60.
Lunnan, R., Kasliwal, M. M., Cao, Y., Hangard, L., Yaron, O., Parrent, J. T., McCully, C., Gal-Yam, A., Mulchaey, J. S., Ben-Ami, S., Filippenko, A. V., Fremling, C., Fruchter, A. S., Howell, D. A., Koda, J., Kupfer, T., Kulkarni, S. R., Laher, R., Masci, F., Nugent, P. E., Ofek, E. O., Yagi, M., & Yan, Lin. Two New Calcium-rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/60
Lunnan, R., Kasliwal, M. M., Cao, Y., Hangard, L., Yaron, O., Parrent, J. T., McCully, C., Gal-Yam, A., Mulchaey, J. S., Ben-Ami, S., Filippenko, A. V., Fremling, C., Fruchter, A. S., Howell, D. A., Koda, J., Kupfer, T., Kulkarni, S. R., Laher, R., Masci, F., Nugent, P. E., Ofek, E. O., Yagi, M., and Yan, Lin. 2017. "Two New Calcium-rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/60. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1393615.
@article{osti_1393615,
title = {Two New Calcium-rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments},
author = {Lunnan, R. and Kasliwal, M. M. and Cao, Y. and Hangard, L. and Yaron, O. and Parrent, J. T. and McCully, C. and Gal-Yam, A. and Mulchaey, J. S. and Ben-Ami, S. and Filippenko, A. V. and Fremling, C. and Fruchter, A. S. and Howell, D. A. and Koda, J. and Kupfer, T. and Kulkarni, S. R. and Laher, R. and Masci, F. and Nugent, P. E. and Ofek, E. O. and Yagi, M. and Yan, Lin},
abstractNote = {We present the Palomar Transient Factory discoveries and the photometric and spectroscopic observations of PTF11kmb and PTF12bho. We show that both transients have properties consistent with the class of calcium-rich gap transients, specifically lower peak luminosities and rapid evolution compared to ordinary supernovae, and a nebular spectrum dominated by [Ca ii] emission. A striking feature of both transients is their host environments: PTF12bho is an intracluster transient in the Coma Cluster, while PTF11kmb is located in a loose galaxy group, at a physical offset ~150 kpc from the most likely host galaxy. Deep Subaru imaging of PTF12bho rules out an underlying host system to a limit of MR > -8.0 mag, while Hubble Space Telescope imaging of PTF11kmb reveals a marginal counterpart that, if real, could be either a background galaxy or a globular cluster. Here, we show that the offset distribution of Ca-rich gap transients is significantly more extreme than that seen for SNe Ia or even short-hard gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). Thus, if the offsets are caused by a kick, they require higher kick velocities and/or longer merger times than sGRBs. Finally, we also show that almost all Ca-rich transients found to date are in group and cluster environments with elliptical host galaxies, indicating a very old progenitor population; the remote locations could partially be explained by these environments having the largest fraction of stars in the intragroup/intracluster light following galaxy-galaxy interactions.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/60},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1393615}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
issn = {1538-4357},
number = 1,
volume = 836,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Wed Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}