Spectroscopy of superluminous supernova host galaxies. A preference of hydrogen-poor events for extreme emission line galaxies

By G. Leloudas, S. Schulze, T. Krühler, J. Gorosabel, L. Christensen, A. Mehner, A. D. U. Postigo, R. Amorín, C. Thöne, Joseph P. Anderson and 9 more. 2014

165 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) were only discovered recently due to their preference for occurring in faint dwarf galaxies. Understanding why stellar evolution yields dierent types of stellar explosions in these environments is fundamental in order to both uncover the elusive progenitors of SLSNe and to study star formation in dwarf galaxies. In this paper, we present the rst results of our project to study SUperluminous Supernova Host galaxIES (SUSHIES), focusing on the sample for which we have obtained spectroscopy. We show that SLSNe-I and SLSNe-R (hydrogen-poor) often ( 50% in our sample) occur in a class of galaxies that is known as Extreme Emission Line Galaxies (EELGs). The probability of this happening by chance is negligible and we therefore conclude that the extreme environmental conditions and the SLSN phenomenon are related. In contrast, SLSNe-II (hydrogen-rich) occur in more massive, more metal-rich galaxies with softer radiation elds. Therefore, if SLSNe-II constitute a uniform class, their progenitor systems must be dierent from those of H-poor SLSNe. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are, on average, not found in as extreme environments as H-poor SLSNe. We propose that H-poor SLSNe result from the very rst stars exploding in a starburst, even earlier than GRBs. This might indicate a bottom-light initial mass function in these systems. SLSNe present a novel method of selecting candidate EELGs independent of their luminosity.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/91617cb4a264ac60626b16eff947634e44698926

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. E. Berger
2. Bing Zhang
3. B. Metzger
4. D. Kasen
5. E. Quataert
6. B. Margalit
7. S. Smartt
8. Z. Cano

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. B. Metzger
2. E. Berger
3. D. Kasen
4. B. Margalit
5. E. Quataert
6. M. Della Valle
7. A. Jerkstrand
8. S. Smartt

Citations in the corpus

• On the diversity of superluminous supernovae: ejected mass as the dominant factor (2015, background): “…Inserra et al. 2013) and occur in low-metallicity dwarf galaxies – perhaps similar to the hosts of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs; Neill et al. 2011; Chen et al. 2013; Lunnan et al. 2014), and possibly in even more extreme star-forming environments (Chen et al. 2015; Leloudas et al. 2015).”
• GRB hosts through cosmic time - VLT/X-Shooter emission-line spectroscopy of 96 γ-ray-burst-selected galaxies at 0.1 (2015, background): “Together with the low reddening, narrow line width, compact morphology and low luminosity (Levan et al. 2014b) it shares many similarities with Blue Compact Dwarfs (e.g., Gil de Paz et al. 2003, and references therein) or hosts of super-luminous supernovae (e.g., Leloudas et al. 2015).”
• The Observer's Guide to the Gamma-Ray Burst-Supernova Connection (2016, background): “A similar offset was also observed for galaxies hosting type I SLSNe [343].”
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives (2019, background): “…preferentially found in starforming dwarf galaxies with stellar masses of < 1010 M and metallicities of < 0.4 solar metallicity (Lunnan et al. 2014; Leloudas et al. 2015; Perley et al. 2016; Schulze et al. 2018), whereas ordinary core-collapse SNe are found in more evolved galaxies (e.g. Kelly &…”
• The Final Season Reimagined: 30 Tidal Disruption Events from the ZTF-I Survey (2022, result): “The distribution of SLSN hosts is not surprising, given previous studies of SLSN hosts (e.g., Lunnan et al. 2014; Leloudas et al. 2015; Perley et al. 2016; Hatsukade et al. 2018; Schulze et al. 2018; Ørum et al. 2020; Schulze et al. 2021; Taggart & Perley 2021).”
• Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae (2016, unknown): “Silverman et al. (2013a) assembled a large sample of candidate SN Ia-CSM events; the nature of these objects and the level of contamination by SNe IIn remains an open issue (Leloudas et al. 2015; Inserra et al. 2016a).”
• The diversity of transients from magnetar birth in core collapse supernovae (2015, background): “A connection between SLSNe-I and LGRBs is suggested by similarities in their host galaxy properties (Lunnan et al. 2014; Leloudas et al. 2015).”
• The Magnetar Model for Type I Superluminous Supernovae. I. Bayesian Analysis of the Full Multicolor Light-curve Sample with MOSFiT (2017, background): “…galaxies (Chen et al. 2013, 2017b; Lunnan et al. 2014; Perley et al. 2016)—though exactly how similar these host populations are is still debated (Leloudas et al. 2015; Angus et al. 2016; Schulze et al. 2016)—and the discovery of a borderline-superluminous SN associated with an ultra-long GRB…”