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Published August 2017 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Spatially resolved analysis of superluminous supernovae PTF 11hrq and PTF 12dam host galaxies

Abstract

Superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are the most luminous supernovae in the Universe. They are found in extreme star-forming galaxies and are probably connected with the death of massive stars. One hallmark of very massive progenitors would be a tendency to explode in very dense, UV-bright and blue regions. In this paper, we investigate the resolved host galaxy properties of two nearby hydrogen-poor SLSNe, PTF 11hrq and PTF 12dam. For both galaxies Hubble Space Telescope multifilter images were obtained. Additionally, we perform integral field spectroscopy of the host galaxy of PTF 11hrq using the Very Large Telescope Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (VLT/MUSE), and investigate the line strength, metallicity and kinematics. Neither PTF 11hrq nor PTF 12dam occurred in the bluest part of their host galaxies, although both galaxies have overall blue UV-to-optical colours. The MUSE data reveal a bright starbursting region in the host of PTF 11hrq, although far from the SN location. The SN exploded close to a region with disturbed kinematics, bluer colour, stronger [O III] and lower metallicity. The host galaxy is likely interacting with a companion. PTF 12dam occurred in one of the brightest pixels, in a starbursting galaxy with a complex morphology and a tidal tail, where interaction is also very likely. We speculate that SLSN explosions may originate from stars generated during star formation episodes triggered by interaction. High-resolution imaging and integral field spectroscopy are fundamental for a better understanding of SLSNe explosion sites and how star formation varies across their host galaxies.

Additional Information

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2017 May 5. Received 2017 May 4; in original form 2017 February 15. Published: 09 May 2017. We are grateful to Wolfgang Kerzendorf (ESO Garching) for useful discussion and suggestions, in particular related to pixel alignment; and to Eliceth Rojas-Montes (Armagh Observatory) and Giacomo Beccari (ESO) for discussion related to massive stars, wind models and mass-loss rates. STSDAS and PYRAF are products of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA for NASA. This work is based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory under programme ID 090.D-0440(A) and 097.D-1054 and on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programme nos. 13858 and 12524. This research used APLPY, an open-source plotting package for PYTHON hosted at http://aplpy.github.com. The STARLIGHT project is supported by the Brazilian agencies CNPq, CAPES and FAPESP and by the France-Brazil CAPES/Cofecub program.

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Published - Cikota_2017p4705.pdf

Submitted - 1705.01948.pdf

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Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023