Luminous blue variable eruptions and related transients: diversity of progenitors and outburst properties

By N. Smith, Weidong Li, J. Silverman, M. Ganeshalingam, A. Filippenko. 2010

244 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present new light curves and optical spectra for a number of extragalactic optical transients or 'supernova impostors' related to giant eruptions of luminous blue variables (LBVs), and we provide a comparative discussion of LBV-like giant eruptions known thus far. New data include photometry and spectroscopy of supernovae (SNe) 1999bw, 2000ch, 2001ac, 2002bu, 2006bv and 2010dn. SN 2010dn appears to be a carbon copy of SN 2008S and NGC 300-OT, whereas SN 2002bu shows spectral evolution from a normal LBV at early times to a twin of these cooler transients at late times. SN 2008S, NGC 300-OT and SN 2010dn appear to be special cases of a broader eruptive phenomenon where the progenitor star was enshrouded by dust, perhaps from a previous unseen eruptive episode. Evidence suggests that their progenitors have initial masses in the range 10―20 M ⊙ , extending the range of masses susceptible to the violent eruptive phenomenon below the canonical LBV mass range. Examining the full sample, SN impostors are characterized by strong photometric variability on a range of time-scales from a day to decades, potentially suffering multiple eruptions of the same source. The upper end of the luminosity distribution overlaps with the least-luminous core-collapse SNe, but in most cases a distinction can be made based on spectra. The low end of the luminosity distribution is far less well defined, and a distinction between LBV giant eruptions, S Doradus phases of LBVs, novae and possible eruptions of intermediate-mass stars is not entirely clear. We discuss observational clues concerning stellar winds or shocks as the relevant mass-loss mechanism, and we evaluate possible ideas for the physical mechanisms of outbursts, but there is still a great need for theoretical work on this problem. Although known examples of these eruptions are sufficient to illustrate their remarkably wide diversity in the peak absolute magnitude, duration, progenitor stars, outburst spectra and other observable properties, their statistical distribution is an area that will benefit greatly from current and upcoming transient surveys. Based on the distribution of these eruptive properties, we propose that the prototypical object SN 1961V was not a member of this class of impostors after all, but was instead a true core-collapse Type IIn SN that was preceded by a giant LBV eruption.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6e1c1556e9447862b26d7f47adf00d04caa7a9a1

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Citations in the corpus

Carnegie Supernova Project: Observations of Type IIn supernovae ⋆ (2013, methodology): “Although the CSP was not an unbiased survey, the number of SNe IIn (7) and the total number of CC SNe (116) is consistent with the fraction found by Smith et al. (2011).”
THE COSMIC CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA RATE DOES NOT MATCH THE MASSIVE-STAR FORMATION RATE (2011, background): “The situations are similar for NGC300-OT (Bond et al. 2009; Berger et al. 2009) and SN 2002bu (Thompson et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2011).”
LSST: From Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products (2008, background): “• A deep search for new populations of novae and supernova progenitors (Smartt 2009; Thompson et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2011; see Fig.28).”
Grids of stellar models with rotation - II. WR populations and supernovae/GRB progenitors at Z = 0.014 (2012, background): “Indeed, mass-loss rates during the RSG phase may present some outbursting characteristics, somewhat similar (at lower luminosity and effective temperature) to what happens at higher luminosity and effective temperature for the luminous blue variable (LBV) stars (Smith et al. 2011).”
PREPARING FOR AN EXPLOSION: HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES AND TURBULENCE IN PRESUPERNOVAE (2013, background): “In the Milky Way and other local galaxies, the massive stars which are most notoriously observed to experience violent episodic mass loss are the luminous blue variables (LBVs; Conti 1984; Humphreys & Davidson 1994; Smith et al. 2004, 2011b; Clark et al. 2005).”
DWARF GALAXIES WITH OPTICAL SIGNATURES OF ACTIVE MASSIVE BLACK HOLES (2013, background): “LBVs are sources of Balmer emission and can exhibit broad Hα with velocities as large as ∼ 1500 km s−1, yet they are generally less luminous than Type II SNe (Smith et al. 2011) and we therefore consider them a less likely source of possible contamination in the broad-line sample.”
INTERACTING SUPERNOVAE AND SUPERNOVA IMPOSTORS: SN 2009ip, IS THIS THE END? (2012, background): “LBVs are observed in the Milky Way, Local Group galaxies and beyond (e.g. Humphreys & Davidson 1994; Humphreys et al. 1999; Maund et al. 2006; Smith et al. 2011b).”
A ∼50,000 M⊙ SOLAR MASS BLACK HOLE IN THE NUCLEUS OF RGG 118 (2015, background): “(iii) Luminous blue variables: Outbursts from luminous blue variables can produce broad Hα emission, but they are fainter than Type II supernovae (Smith et al. 2011).”
Progenitor mass constraints for core-collapse supernovae from correlations with host galaxy star formation⋆ (2012, methodology): “We use this as a starting point for interpreting our results on the different SN types, and investigate differences in the association of different types with host galaxy SF.”
Dawes Review 6: The Impact of Companions on Stellar Evolution (2016, background): “This conclusion is also in line with the study of Smith et al. (2011c), who advocated a mixed origin for the supernovae type Ib and Ic, with single stars able to produce some supernovae type Ic, which would then have a higher progenitor mass. Additionally, single stellar evolution predicts an…”
Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: Construction, Observational Verification, and New Results (2017, background): “The evolutionary state of these stars is still somewhat uncertain (Smith et al. 2011; Smith & Owocki 2006; Humphreys & Davidson 1994; Humphreys et al. 2017).”
The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. II. A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics (2020, background): “There is also one particularly luminous LBV eruption (SN impostor; Maund et al. 2006; Smith et al. 2011; Pastorello & Fraser 2019), and several luminous SNeIax.”
The death of massive stars – I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of Type II-P supernovae (2008, methodology): “As suggested by Smith et al. (2011a), we find that a singlestar population cannot produce the observed rates of Ibc SNe.”
HIGH-DENSITY CIRCUMSTELLAR INTERACTION IN THE LUMINOUS TYPE IIn SN 2010jl: THE FIRST 1100 DAYS (2013, methodology): “Based on the weak Na I lines, Smith et al. (2011) assume negligible reddening from the host galaxy.”
The search for failed supernovae with the Large Binocular Telescope: confirmation of a disappearing star (2016, background): “Although there are alternative hypotheses for the missing SN progenitors, such as post-RSG evolution occuring at lower masses (e.g., Smith et al. 2011a; Groh et al. 2013) or enhanced dust formation prior to core collapse (e.g., Walmswell & Eldridge 2012; Beasor & Davies 2016), the dearth of…”
Luminous blue variables are antisocial: their isolation implies that they are kicked mass gainers in binary evolution (2014, background): “…stripped-envelope progenitors is ∼36%, whereas stars that are luminous enough to shed their H envelopes through their own winds comprise only 10-15% of a normal SN-producing IMF (Smith et al. 2011b), or perhaps even less if some massive stars collapse to black holes without producing bright SNe.”
TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE STRONGLY INTERACTING WITH THEIR CIRCUMSTELLAR MEDIUM (2013, background): “On the less luminous end, luminous blue variable star (LBV) outbursts and so-called “SN impostors” (which are spectroscopically similar to SNe IIn and SNe Ia-CSM) have peak absolute magnitudes −16 ≤MR mag (Smith et al. 2011a).”
Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars (2014, methodology): “There have been a number of physical mechanisms discussed in connection with LBVs, recently reviewed in detail by Smith et al. (2011a).”
Pulsational Pair-instability Supernovae (2016, background): “Some might be even classified as “supernova impostors” (Smith et al. 2011).”