| 1. |
- Gal-Yam, A., et al.
(författare)
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A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 601:7892, s. 201-204
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The final fate of massive stars, and the nature of the compact remnants they leave behind (black holes and neutron stars), are open questions in astrophysics. Many massive stars are stripped of their outer hydrogen envelopes as they evolve. Such Wolf-Rayet stars(1) emit strong and rapidly expanding winds with speeds greater than 1,000 kilometres per second. A fraction of this population is also helium-depleted, with spectra dominated by highly ionized emission lines of carbon and oxygen (types WC/WO). Evidence indicates that the most commonly observed supernova explosions that lack hydrogen and helium (types Ib/Ic) cannot result from massive WC/WO stars(2,3), leading some to suggest that most such stars collapse directly into black holes without a visible supernova explosion(4). Here we report observations of SN 2019hgp, beginning about a day after the explosion. Its short rise time and rapid decline place it among an emerging population of rapidly evolving transients(5-8). Spectroscopy reveals a rich set of emission lines indicating that the explosion occurred within a nebula composed of carbon, oxygen and neon. Narrow absorption features show that this material is expanding at high velocities (greater than 1,500 kilometres per second), requiring a compact progenitor. Our observations are consistent with an explosion of a massive WC/WO star, and suggest that massive Wolf-Rayet stars may be the progenitors of some rapidly evolving transients.
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| 2. |
- Ho, Anna Y. Q., et al.
(författare)
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Cosmological Fast Optical Transients with the Zwicky Transient Facility : A Search for Dirty Fireballs
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 938:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dirty fireballs are a hypothesized class of relativistic massive-star explosions with an initial Lorentz factor Γinit below the Γinit ∼ 100 required to produce a long-duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB), but which could still produce optical emission resembling LGRB afterglows. Here we present the results of a search for on-axis optical afterglows using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Our search yielded seven optical transients that resemble on-axis LGRB afterglows in terms of their red colors (g − r > 0 mag), faint host galaxies (r > 23 mag), rapid fading (dr/dt > 1 mag day−1), and in some cases X-ray and radio emission. Spectroscopy of the transient emission within a few days of discovery established cosmological distances (redshift z = 0.876 to 2.9) for six of the seven events, tripling the number of afterglows with redshift measurements discovered by optical surveys without a γ-ray trigger. A likely associated LGRB (GRB 200524A, GRB 210204A, GRB 210212B, and GRB 210610B) was identified for four events (ZTF 20abbiixp/AT 2020kym, ZTF 21aagwbjr/AT 2021buv, ZTF 21aakruew/AT 2021cwd, and ZTF 21abfmpwn/AT 2021qbd) post facto, while three (ZTF 20aajnksq/AT 2020blt, ZTF 21aaeyldq/AT 2021any, and ZTF 21aayokph/AT 2021lfa) had no detected LGRB counterpart. The simplest explanation for the three "orphan" events is that they were regular LGRBs missed by high-energy satellites owing to detector sensitivity and duty cycle, although it is possible that they were intrinsically subluminous in γ-rays or viewed slightly off-axis. We rule out a scenario in which dirty fireballs have a similar energy per solid angle to LGRBs and are an order of magnitude more common. In addition, we set the first direct constraint on the ratio of the opening angles of the material producing γ-rays and the material producing early optical afterglow emission, finding that they must be comparable.
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| 3. |
- Burdge, Kevin B., et al.
(författare)
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A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 605:7908, s. 41-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over a dozen millisecond pulsars are ablating low-mass companions in close binary systems. In the original 'black widow', the eight-hour orbital period eclipsing pulsar PSR J1959+2048 (PSR B1957+20)(1), high-energy emission originating from the pulsar2 is irradiating and may eventually destroy(3) a low-mass companion. These systems are not only physical laboratories that reveal the interesting results of exposing a close companion star to the relativistic energy output of a pulsar, but are also believed to harbour some of the most massive neutron stars(4), allowing for robust tests of the neutron star equation of state. Here we report observations of ZTF J1406+1222, a wide hierarchical triple hosting a 62-minute orbital period black widow candidate, the optical flux of which varies by a factor of more than ten. ZTF J1406+1222 pushes the boundaries of evolutionary models(5), falling below the 80-minute minimum orbital period of hydrogen-rich systems. The wide tertiary companion is a rare low-metallicity cool subdwarf star, and the system has a Galactic halo orbit consistent with passing near the Galactic Centre, making it a probe of formation channels, neutron star kick physics(6) and binary evolution.
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| 4. |
- Dhawan, Suhail, et al.
(författare)
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A Uniform Type Ia Supernova Distance Ladder with the Zwicky Transient Facility : Absolute Calibration Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch Method
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 934:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current Cepheid-calibrated distance ladder measurement of H0 is reported to be in tension with the values inferred from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), assuming standard cosmology. However, some tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) estimates report H0 in better agreement with the CMB. Hence, it is critical to reduce systematic uncertainties in local measurements to understand the Hubble tension. In this paper, we propose a uniform distance ladder between the second and third rungs, combining Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) with a TRGB calibration of their absolute luminosity. A large, volume-limited sample of both calibrator and Hubble flow SNe Ia from the same survey minimizes two of the largest sources of systematics: host-galaxy bias and nonuniform photometric calibration. We present results from a pilot study using the existing TRGB distance to the host galaxy of ZTF SN Ia SN 2021rhu (aka ZTF21abiuvdk) in NGC7814. Combining the ZTF calibrator with a volume-limited sample from the first data release of ZTF Hubble flow SNe Ia, we infer H0 = 76.94 ± 6.4 km s−1 Mpc−1, an 8.3% measurement. The error budget is dominated by the single object calibrating the SN Ia luminosity in this pilot study. However, the ZTF sample includes already five other SNe Ia within ∼20 Mpc for which TRGB distances can be obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Finally, we present the prospects of building this distance ladder out to 80 Mpc with James Webb Space Telescope observations of more than 100 ZTF SNe Ia.
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| 5. |
- Perley, Daniel A., et al.
(författare)
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The Type Icn SN 2021csp : Implications for the Origins of the Fastest Supernovae and the Fates of Wolf-Rayet Stars
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 927:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present observations of SN 2021csp, the second example of a newly identified type of supernova (SN) hallmarked by strong, narrow, P Cygni carbon features at early times (Type Icn). The SN appears as a fast and luminous blue transient at early times, reaching a peak absolute magnitude of −20 within 3 days due to strong interaction between fast SN ejecta (v ≈ 30,000 km s−1) and a massive, dense, fast-moving C/O wind shed by the WC-like progenitor months before explosion. The narrow-line features disappear from the spectrum 10–20 days after explosion and are replaced by a blue continuum dominated by broad Fe features, reminiscent of Type Ibn and IIn supernovae and indicative of weaker interaction with more extended H/He-poor material. The transient then abruptly fades ∼60 days post-explosion when interaction ceases. Deep limits at later phases suggest minimal heavy-element nucleosynthesis, a low ejecta mass, or both, and imply an origin distinct from that of classical Type Ic SNe. We place SN 2021csp in context with other fast-evolving interacting transients, and discuss various progenitor scenarios: an ultrastripped progenitor star, a pulsational pair-instability eruption, or a jet-driven fallback SN from a Wolf–Rayet (W-R) star. The fallback scenario would naturally explain the similarity between these events and radio-loud fast transients, and suggests a picture in which most stars massive enough to undergo a W-R phase collapse directly to black holes at the end of their lives.
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| 6. |
- Biswas, Rahul, et al.
(författare)
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Two c's in a pod : cosmology-independent measurement of the Type Ia supernova colour-luminosity relation with a sibling pair
- 2022
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 509:4, s. 5340-5356
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observations, we identify a pair of ‘sibling’ Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), i.e. hosted by the same galaxy at z = 0.0541. They exploded within 200 d from each other at a separation of 0.6arcsec0.6arcsec corresponding to a projected distance of only 0.6 kpc. Performing SALT2 light-curve fits to the gri ZTF photometry, we show that for these equally distant ‘standardizable candles’, there is a difference of 2 mag in their rest-frame B-band peaks, and the fainter supernova (SN) has a significantly red SALT2 colour c = 0.57 ± 0.04, while the stretch values x1 of the two SNe are similar, suggesting that the fainter SN is attenuated by dust in the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. We use these measurements to infer the SALT2 colour standardization parameter, β = 3.5 ± 0.3, independent of the underlying cosmology and Malmquist bias. Assuming the colour excess is entirely due to dust, the result differs by 2σ from the average Milky Way total-to-selective extinction ratio, but is in good agreement with the colour–brightness corrections empirically derived from the most recent SN Ia Hubble–Lemaitre diagram fits. Thus we suggest that SN ‘siblings’, which will increasingly be discovered in the coming years, can be used to probe the validity of the colour and light-curve shape corrections using in SN Ia cosmology while avoiding important systematic effects in their inference from global multiparameter fits to inhomogeneous data sets, and also help constrain the role of interstellar dust in SN Ia cosmology.
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| 7. |
- Irani, I., et al.
(författare)
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Less Than 1% of Core-collapse Supernovae in the Local Universe Occur in Elliptical Galaxies
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 927:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present observations of three core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) in elliptical hosts, detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey (BTS). SN 2019ape is a SN Ic that exploded in the main body of a typical elliptical galaxy. Its properties are consistent with an explosion of a regular SN Ic progenitor. A secondary g-band light-curve peak could indicate interaction of the ejecta with circumstellar material (CSM). An Ha-emitting source at the explosion site suggests a residual local star formation origin. SN 2018fsh and SN 2020uik are SNe II which exploded in the outskirts of elliptical galaxies. SN 2020uik shows typical spectra for SNe II, while SN 2018fsh shows a boxy nebular Ha profile, a signature of CSM interaction. We combine these 3 SNe with 7 events from the literature and analyze their hosts as a sample. We present multi-wavelength photometry of the hosts, and compare this to archival photometry of all BTS hosts. Using the spectroscopically complete BTS, we conclude that 0.3%(+0.3)(-0.1) of all CCSNe occur in elliptical galaxies. We derive star formation rates and stellar masses for the host galaxies and compare them to the properties of other SN hosts. We show that CCSNe in ellipticals have larger physical separations from their hosts compared to SNe Ia in elliptical galaxies, and discuss implications for star-forming activity in elliptical galaxies.
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| 8. |
- Reusch, Simeon, et al.
(författare)
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Candidate Tidal Disruption Event AT2019fdr Coincident with a High-Energy Neutrino
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 128:22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The origins of the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux remain largely unknown. Recently, one high-energy neutrino was associated with a tidal disruption event (TDE). Here we present AT2019fdr, an exceptionally luminous TDE candidate, coincident with another high-energy neutrino. Our observations, including a bright dust echo and soft late-time x-ray emission, further support a TDE origin of this flare. The probability of finding two such bright events by chance is just 0.034%. We evaluate several models for neutrino production and show that AT2019fdr is capable of producing the observed high-energy neutrino, reinforcing the case for TDEs as neutrino sources.
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