ASASSN-18am/SN 2018gk: an overluminous Type IIb supernova from a massive progenitor
: Bose S, Dong SB, Kochanek CS, Stritzinger MD, Ashall C, Benetti S, Falco E, Filippenko AV, Pastorello A, Prieto JL, Somero A, Sukhbold T, Zhang JB, Auchettl K, Brink TG, Brown JS, Chen P, Fiore A, Grupe D, Holoien TWS, Lundqvist P, Mattila S, Mutel R, Pooley D, Post RS, Reddy N, Reynolds TM, Shappee BJ, Stanek KZ, Thompson TA, Villanueva S, Zheng WK
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS
: 2021
: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
: MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
: MON NOT R ASTRON SOC
: 503
: 3
: 3472
: 3491
: 20
: 0035-8711
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab629(external)
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/58754573(external)
ASASSN-18am/SN 2018gk is a newly discovered member of the rare group of luminous, hydrogen-rich supernovae (SNe) with a peak absolute magnitude of MV ≈ -20 mag that is in between normal core-collapse SNe and superluminous SNe. These SNe show no prominent spectroscopic signatures of ejecta interacting with circumstellar material (CSM), and their powering mechanism is debated. ASASSN-18am declines extremely rapidly for a Type II SN, with a photospheric-phase decline rate of ∼6.0 mag (100 d)-1. Owing to the weakening of H I and the appearance of He I in its later phases, ASASSN-18am is spectroscopically a Type IIb SN with a partially stripped envelope. However, its photometric and spectroscopic evolution shows significant differences from typical SNe IIb. Using a radiative diffusion model, we find that the light curve requires a high synthesized 56Ni mass MNi ∼0.4 M⊙ and ejecta with high kinetic energy Ekin = (7-10) x 1051 erg. Introducing a magnetar central engine still requires MNi ∼0.3 M⊙ and E-kin = 3 x 1051 erg. The high 56Ni mass is consistent with strong iron-group nebular lines in its spectra, which are also similar to several SNe Ic-BL with high 56Ni yields. The earliest spectrum shows 'flash ionization' features, from which we estimate a mass-loss rate of Ṁ ≈ 2 x 10-4 M⊙ yr-1. This wind density is too low to power the luminous light curve by ejecta-CSM interaction. We measure expansion velocities as high as 17 000 km s-1 for Hα, which is remarkably high compared to other SNe II. We estimate an oxygen core mass of 1.8-3.4 M⊙ using the [O I] luminosity measured from a nebular-phase spectrum, implying a progenitor with a zero-age main-sequence mass of 19-26 M⊙.