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Published March 23, 2016 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Interacting supernovae and supernova impostors. LSQ13zm: an outburst heralds the death of a massive star

Abstract

We report photometric and spectroscopic observations of the optical transient LSQ13zm. Historical data reveal the presence of an eruptive episode (that we label as '2013a') followed by a much brighter outburst ('2013b') three weeks later, that we argue to be the genuine supernova explosion. This sequence of events closely resemble those observed for SN 2010mc and (in 2012) SN 2009ip. The absolute magnitude reached by LSQ13zm during 2013a (M_R=−14.87±0.25mag) is comparable with those of supernova impostors, while that of the 2013b event (M_R=−18.46±0.21mag) is consistent with those of interacting supernovae. Our spectra reveal the presence of a dense and structured circumstellar medium, probably produced through numerous pre-supernova mass-loss events. In addition, we find evidence for high-velocity ejecta, with a fraction of gas expelled at more than 20000 km s^(−1). The spectra of LSQ13zm show remarkable similarity with those of well-studied core-collapse supernovae. From the analysis of the available photometric and spectroscopic data, we conclude that we first observed the last event of an eruptive sequence from a massive star, likely a Luminous Blue Variable, which a short time later exploded as a core-collapse supernova. The detailed analysis of archival images suggest that the host galaxy is a star-forming Blue Dwarf Compact Galaxy.

Additional Information

© 2016 The Authors, Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2016 March 18. Received 2016 March 18; in original form 2015 September 29. Based on observations made with: The Cima Ekar 1.82 m Telescopio Copernico of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) – Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy. The Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundacion Galileo Galilei of the INAF at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The La Silla Quest (LSQ) ESO 1.5 m Schmidt telescope (ESO La Silla, Chile). The Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) 1.2 m Samuel Oschin telescope. The LCOGT 1.0-m telescope at McDonald Observatory (Texas, USA) and the 2.0-m FTN with FLOYDS of the LCOGT network. The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) operated on the island of La Palma at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The Liverpool Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), operated by the NOT Scientific Association at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The William Herschel Telescope (WHT) operated on island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The 6 m Bolshoi Teleskop Alt-azimutalnyi (BTA) and the 1 m Zeiss-1000 telescope (both located at Mount Pastukhov, Caucasus Mountains, Russia). The 0.6 m Rapid Eye Mount (REM) telescope (ESO La SIlla, Chile). The Catalina Real Time Survey (CRTS) Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) 0.7 m Schmidt and Mt Lemmon Survey (MLS) 1.5 m Cassegrain telescopes. The 2.2 m University of Hawaii telescope. The UIS Barber Research Observatory 20 arcsec telescope. The 2.2 m University of Hawaii telescope. We thank C. Barbieri, G. Naletto, L. Zampieri for the support with the observations of LSQ13zm with ACAM and M. Graham for the LCOGT observations. AP, SB, NER, AH, LT, GT, and MT are partially supported by the PRIN-INAF 2014 with the project 'Transient Universe: unveiling new types of stellar explosions with PESSTO'. NER acknowledges the support from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n. 267251 'Astronomy Fellowships in Italy' (AstroFIt). MS acknowledges support from the Royal Society and EU/FP7-ERC Grant No. [615929]. ST acknowledges support by TRR33, 'The dark Universe' of the German Research Foundation. AGY is supported by the EU/FP7 via ERC grant No. 307260, the Quantum Universe I-Core programme by the Israeli Committee for planning and budgeting and the ISF, by Minerva and ISF grants, by the Weizmann-UK 'making connections' program and by Kimmel and ARCHES awards. AMG acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Grant ESP2013-41268-R. VPG, EAB, AFV are supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research Grant 14-02-00759. SF acknowledges support of the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan University. SS acknowledges support from CONICYT – Chile FONDECYT 3140534, Basal – CATA PFB – 06/2007 and Project IC120009 'Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)' of Iniciativa Científica Milenio del Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo. JM acknowledges the National Science Foundation (NSF, Grant 1108890). REM data were obtained as part of the programme CN2013A-FT-12. ACAM data were obtained as part of the programme OPT 43. The CRTS survey is supported by the US National Science Foundation under grants AST-1313422 and AST-1413600. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. A portion of this work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a Research and Technology Development Grant, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Copyright 2015 California Institute of Technology. All Rights Reserved. US Government Support Acknowledged. LANL participation in iPTF is supported by the US Department of Energy as part of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The 2MASS project is a collaboration between The University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (JPL/Caltech). Funding is provided primarily by NASA and the NSF. The University of Massachusetts constructed and maintained the observatory facilities, and operated the survey. All data processing and data product generation is being carried out by IPAC. Survey operations began in Spring 1997 and concluded in Spring 2001. This research was supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation (grant no. 14-50-00043). IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Published - MNRAS-2016-Tartaglia-1039-59.pdf

Submitted - 1604.00013v1.pdf

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August 20, 2023
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