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Published October 10, 2016 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

The Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transient SN 2010da: The Progenitor, Eruption and Aftermath of a Peculiar Supergiant High-mass X-ray Binary

Abstract

We present optical spectroscopy, ultraviolet-to-infrared imaging, and X-ray observations of the intermediate luminosity optical transient (ILOT) SN 2010da in NGC 300 (d = 1.86 Mpc) spanning from −6 to +6 years relative to the time of outburst in 2010. Based on the light-curve and multi-epoch spectral energy distributions of SN 2010da, we conclude that the progenitor of SN 2010da is a ≈10–12 M_⊙ yellow supergiant possibly transitioning into a blue-loop phase. During outburst, SN 2010da had a peak absolute magnitude of M_(bol) ≾ −10.4 mag, dimmer than other ILOTs and supernova impostors. We detect multi-component hydrogen Balmer, Paschen, and Ca ii emission lines in our high-resolution spectra, which indicate a dusty and complex circumstellar environment. Since the 2010 eruption, the star has brightened by a factor of ≈5 and remains highly variable in the optical. Furthermore, we detect SN 2010da in archival Swift and Chandra observations as an ultraluminous X-ray source (L_X ≈ 6 × 10^(39) erg s^(−1)). We additionally attribute He ii 4686 Å and coronal Fe emission lines in addition to a steady X-ray luminosity of ≈10^(37) erg s^(−1) to the presence of a compact companion.

Additional Information

© 2016 American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 May 24; revised 2016 July 7; accepted 2016 July 21; published 2016 October 3. We thank Rosanne Di Stefano, Sebastian Gomez, Josh Grindlay, Jeffrey McClintock, and Ramesh Narayan for helpful discussions. We also wish to thank Ian Thompson for obtaining the MIKE spectrum. We thank an anonymous referee for the insightful comments which improved the quality of this manuscript. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. This work is based in part on archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA and based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory under Program ID GS-2010A-Q-19, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina), and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil). This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester. Additionally, the scientific results reported in this article are based in part on data obtained from the Chandra Data Archive. V.A.V. and P.K.B. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation through a Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE1144152.

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Published - apj_830_1_11.pdf

Submitted - 1605.07245v1.pdf

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Created:
August 22, 2023
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October 20, 2023