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Title: DES13S2cmm: the first superluminous supernova from the Dark Energy Survey

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv174· OSTI ID:1392018
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We present DES13S2cmm, the first spectroscopically-confirmed superluminous supernova (SLSN) from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We briefly discuss the data and search algorithm used to find this event in the first year of DES operations, and outline the spectroscopic data obtained from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope to confirm its redshift (z = 0.663 +/- 0.001 based on the host-galaxy emission lines) and likely spectral type (Type I). Using this redshift, we find M-U(peak) = -21.05(-0.09)(+0.10) for the peak, rest-frame U-band absolute magnitude, and find DES13S2cmm to be located in a faint, low-metallicity (subsolar), low stellar-mass host galaxy (log (M/M-circle dot) = 9.3 +/- 0.3), consistent with what is seen for other SLSNe-I. We compare the bolometric light curve of DES13S2cmm to 14 similarly well-observed SLSNe-I in the literature and find that it possesses one of the slowest declining tails (beyond +30 d rest-frame past peak), and is the faintest at peak. Moreover, we find the bolometric light curves of all SLSNe-I studied herein possess a dispersion of only 0.2-0.3 mag between +25 and +30 d after peak (rest frame) depending on redshift range studied; this could be important for 'standardizing' such supernovae, as is done with the more common Type Ia. We fit the bolometric light curve of DES13S2cmm with two competing models for SLSNe-I-the radioactive decay of Ni-56, and a magnetar - and find that while the magnetar is formally a better fit, neither model provides a compelling match to the data. Although we are unable to conclusively differentiate between these two physical models for this particular SLSN-I, further DES observations of more SLSNe-I should break this degeneracy, especially if the light curves of SLSNe-I can be observed beyond 100 d in the rest frame of the supernova.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1392018
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 449, Issue 2; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (30)

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Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (Mesa): Binaries, Pulsations, and Explosions journal September 2015
Spectrum formation in superluminous supernovae (Type I) journal March 2016
The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy – an overview journal March 2016
Cosmic evolution and metal aversion in superluminous supernova host galaxies journal September 2017
On the nature of hydrogen-rich superluminous supernovae journal January 2018
Superluminous supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey journal May 2019
Galaxies in X-ray selected clusters and groups in Dark Energy Survey data – II. Hierarchical Bayesian modelling of the red-sequence galaxy luminosity function journal June 2019
Developing a unified pipeline for large-scale structure data analysis with angular power spectra – I. The importance of redshift-space distortions for galaxy number counts journal September 2019
Host Galaxy Identification for Supernova Surveys journal November 2016
Analyzing the Largest Spectroscopic Data Set of Hydrogen-poor Super-luminous Supernovae journal August 2017
The Magnetar Model for Type I Superluminous Supernovae. I. Bayesian Analysis of the Full Multicolor Light-curve Sample with MOSFiT journal November 2017
Hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernovae from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey journal January 2018
Studying the Ultraviolet Spectrum of the First Spectroscopically Confirmed Supernova at Redshift Two journal February 2018
A Statistical Approach to Identify Superluminous Supernovae and Probe Their Diversity journal February 2018
Systematic Investigation of the Fallback Accretion-powered Model for Hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernovae journal November 2018
Superluminous Supernovae in LSST: Rates, Detection Metrics, and Light-curve Modeling journal December 2018
A Hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernova with Enhanced Iron-group Absorption: A New Link between SLSNe and Broad-lined Type Ic SNe journal February 2019
Cosmic evolution and metal aversion in superluminous supernova host galaxies text January 2018
The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview text January 2016
On the nature of Hydrogen-rich Superluminous Supernovae text January 2016
Analyzing the Largest Spectroscopic Dataset of Hydrogen-Poor Super-Luminous Supernovae text January 2016
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Hydrogen-Poor Superluminous Supernovae from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey text January 2017
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A statistical approach to identify superluminous supernovae and probe their diversity text January 2017
Superluminous Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey text January 2018
Developing a unified pipeline for large-scale structure data analysis with angular power spectra -- I. The importance of redshift-space distortions for galaxy number counts text January 2019
Radiative shock waves and their role in solving puzzles of Superluminous Supernovae preprint January 2016

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