Radio observations of a sample of broad-line type Ic supernovae discovered by PTF/IPTF: a search for relativistic explosions

Journal Article · Mon Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/830/1/42· OSTI ID:22868604

Corsi, A.; Palliyaguru, N. ^[1]; Gal-Yam, A.; Horesh, A.; Leloudas, G. ^[2]; Kulkarni, S. R.; Kasliwal, M. M.; Cao, Y. ^[3]; Frail, D. A. ^[4]; Mazzali, P. A. ^[5]; Cenko, S. B. ^[6]; Perley, D. A. ^[7]; Laher, R. R.; Sollerman, J. ^[8]; Taddia, F. ^[9]; Maguire, K. ^[10]; Nugent, P. E. ^[11]

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1. Department of Physics, Texas Tech University, Box 41051, Lubbock, TX 79409-1051 (United States)
2. Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot (Israel)
3. Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
4. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
5. Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 5RF (United Kingdom)
6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 685, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
7. Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark)
8. Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, M/S 314-6, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
9. Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Center, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm (Sweden)
10. Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)
11. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)

Long duration γ-ray bursts are a rare subclass of stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae (SNe) that launch collimated relativistic outflows (jets). All γ-ray-burst-associated SNe are spectroscopically Type Ic, with broad-lines, but the fraction of broad-lined SNe Ic harboring low-luminosity γ-ray bursts remains largely unconstrained. Some SNe should be accompanied by off-axis γ-ray burst jets that initially remain invisible, but then emerge as strong radio sources (as the jets decelerate). However, this critical prediction of the jet model for γ-ray bursts has yet to be verified observationally. Here, we present K. G. Jansky Very Large Array observations of 15 broad-lined SNe of Type Ic discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory in an untargeted manner. Most of the SNe in our sample exclude radio emission observationally similar to that of the radio-loud, relativistic SN 1998bw. We constrain the fraction of 1998bw-like broad-lined SNe Ic to be ≲41% (99.865% confidence). Most of the events in our sample also exclude off-axis jets similar to GRB 031203 and GRB 030329, but we cannot rule out off-axis γ-ray bursts expanding in a low-density wind environment. Three SNe in our sample are detected in the radio. PTF11qcj and PTF14dby show late-time radio emission with average ejecta speeds of ≈0.3–0.4 c, on the dividing line between relativistic and “ordinary” SNe. The speed of PTF11cmh radio ejecta is poorly constrained. We estimate that ≲85% (99.865% confidence) of the broad-lined SNe Ic in our sample may harbor off-axis γ-ray bursts expanding in media with densities in the range probed by this study.

• OSTI ID: 22868604
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 830; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
DENSITY
EMISSION
EXPLOSIONS
FORECASTING
LUMINOSITY
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
TYPE I SUPERNOVAE
VELOCITY