1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆

Claes Fransson; Alexandra Kozyreva; Ting-Wan Chen; Ofer Yaron; Anders Jerkstrand; Avishay Gal-Yam; Jesper Sollerman; Lin Yan; Tuomas Kangas; Giorgos Leloudas; Conor M. B. Omand; Stephen J. Smartt; Matt Nicholl; Nikhil Sarin; Yuhan Yao; Thomas G. Brink; Amir Sharon; Andrea Rossi; Ping Chen; Zhihao Chen; Aleksandar Cikota; Kishalay De; Andrew J. Drake; Alexei V. Filippenko; Christoffer Fremling; Laurane Fréour; Johan P. U. Fynbo; Anna Y. Q. Ho; Cosimo Inserra; Ido Irani; Hanindyo Kuncarayakti; Ragnhild Lunnan; Paolo Mazzali; Eran O. Ofek; Eliana Palazzi; Daniel A. Perley; Miika Pursiainen; Barry Rothberg; Luke J. Shingles; Ken Smith; Kirsty Taggart; Leonardo Tartaglia; WeiKang Zheng; Joseph P. Anderson; Letizia Cassara; Eric Christensen; S. George Djorgovski; Lluís Galbany; Anamaria Gkini; Matthew J. Graham; Mariusz Gromadzki; Steven L. Groom; Daichi Hiramatsu; D. Andrew Howell; Mansi M. Kasliwal; Curtis McCully; Tomás E. Müller-Bravo; Simona Paiano; Emmanouela Paraskeva; Priscila J. Pessi; David Polishook; Arne Rau; Mickael Rigault; Ben Rusholme

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202346855

1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆

Claes Fransson, Alexandra Kozyreva, Ting-Wan Chen, Ofer Yaron, Anders Jerkstrand, Avishay Gal-Yam, Jesper Sollerman, Lin Yan, Tuomas Kangas, Giorgos Leloudas, Conor M. B. Omand, Stephen J. Smartt, Matt Nicholl, Nikhil Sarin, Yuhan Yao, Thomas G. Brink, Amir Sharon, Andrea Rossi, Ping Chen, Zhihao ChenAleksandar Cikota, Kishalay De, Andrew J. Drake, Alexei V. Filippenko, Christoffer Fremling, Laurane Fréour, Johan P. U. Fynbo, Anna Y. Q. Ho, Cosimo Inserra, Ido Irani, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Ragnhild Lunnan, Paolo Mazzali, Eran O. Ofek, Eliana Palazzi, Daniel A. Perley, Miika Pursiainen, Barry Rothberg, Luke J. Shingles, Ken Smith, Kirsty Taggart, Leonardo Tartaglia, WeiKang Zheng, Joseph P. Anderson, Letizia Cassara, Eric Christensen, S. George Djorgovski, Lluís Galbany, Anamaria Gkini, Matthew J. Graham, Mariusz Gromadzki, Steven L. Groom, Daichi Hiramatsu, D. Andrew Howell, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Curtis McCully, Tomás E. Müller-Bravo, Simona Paiano, Emmanouela Paraskeva, Priscila J. Pessi, David Polishook, Arne Rau, Mickael Rigault, Ben Rusholme

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Stars with zero-age main sequence masses between 140 and 260 M⊙ are thought to explode as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). During their thermonuclear runaway, PISNe can produce up to several tens of solar masses of radioactive nickel, resulting in luminous transients similar to some superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). Yet, no unambiguous PISN has been discovered so far. SN 2018ibb is a hydrogen-poor SLSN at z = 0.166 that evolves extremely slowly compared to the hundreds of known SLSNe. Between mid 2018 and early 2022, we monitored its photometric and spectroscopic evolution from the UV to the near-infrared (NIR) with 2–10 m class telescopes. SN 2018ibb radiated > 3 × 1051 erg during its evolution, and its bolometric light curve reached > 2 × 1044 erg s−1 at its peak. The long-lasting rise of > 93 rest-frame days implies a long diffusion time, which requires a very high total ejected mass. The PISN mechanism naturally provides both the energy source (56Ni) and the long diffusion time. Theoretical models of PISNe make clear predictions as to their photometric and spectroscopic properties. SN 2018ibb complies with most tests on the light curves, nebular spectra and host galaxy, and potentially all tests with the interpretation we propose. Both the light curve and the spectra require 25–44 M⊙ of freshly nucleosynthesised 56Ni, pointing to the explosion of a metal-poor star with a helium core mass of 120–130 M⊙ at the time of death. This interpretation is also supported by the tentative detection of [Co II] λ 1.025 μm, which has never been observed in any other PISN candidate or SLSN before. We observe a significant excess in the blue part of the optical spectrum during the nebular phase, which is in tension with predictions of existing PISN models. However, we have compelling observational evidence for an eruptive mass-loss episode of the progenitor of SN 2018ibb shortly before the explosion, and our dataset reveals that the interaction of the SN ejecta with this oxygen-rich circumstellar material contributed to the observed emission. That may explain this specific discrepancy with PISN models. Powering by a central engine, such as a magnetar or a black hole, can be excluded with high confidence. This makes SN 2018ibb by far the best candidate for being a PISN, to date.

Original language	English
Article number	A223
Number of pages	47
Journal	Astronomy and Astrophysics
Volume	683
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346855
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

We thank the referee for a careful reading of the manuscript and for helpful comments that improved this paper. We thank Stéphane Blondin (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France), Luc Dessart (Sorbonne Université, France), Sebastian Gomez (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA), Ryosuke Hirai (Monash University, Australia), Boaz Katz (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), Keiichi Maeda (Kyoto University, Japan), Ilya Mandel (Monash University, Australia), and Kanji Mori (Fukuoka University, Japan) for fruitful discussions. U.C. Berkeley undergraduate students Nachiket Girish, Andrew Hoffman, Evelyn Liu, Shaunak Modak, Jackson Sipple, Samantha Stegman, Kevin Tang, and Keto Zhang helped obtain data with the Lick/Nickel telescope. Z. C. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council. A. V. Filippenko’s supernova group at U.C. Berkeley received financial support from the Christopher R. Redlich Fund, Gary & Cynthia Bengier, Clark & Sharon Winslow, Sanford Robertson, Frank and Kathleen Wood (T. G. Brink is a Wood Specialist in Astronomy), Alan Eustace (W. Zheng is a Eustace Specialist in Astronomy), and numerous other donors. C. F. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board. J. P. U. F. acknowledges support from the Carlsberg Foundation. The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant No. 140. M. G. is supported by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004719. A. J. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ERC Starting Grant No. [803189]). H. K. was funded by the Academy of Finland projects 324504 and 328898. G. L. and M. P. are supported by a research grant (19054) from VILLUM FONDEN. R. L. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 10104229 – TransPIre). T. E. M.-B. and L. G. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) 10.13039/501100011033, the European Social Fund (ESF) “Investing in your future”, and the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR funds under the PID2020-115253GA-I00 HOSTFLOWS project, the 2019 Ramón y Cajal program RYC2019-027683-I, the 2021 Juan de la Cierva program FJC2021-047124-I, and from Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) under the PIE project 20215AT016, and the program Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2020-001058-M. M. N. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 948381) and by a Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute. D. P. is grateful for the Wise Observatory staff. A. R. acknowledges support from Premiale LBT 2013. M. R. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 759194 – USNAC). N. S. is supported by a Nordita Fellowship. Nordita is funded in part by NordForsk. S. S. acknowledges support from the G.R.E.A.T. research environment, funded by Vetenskapsrådet, the Swedish Research Council, project number 2016-06012. L. J. S. acknowledges support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Advanced Grant KILONOVA No. 885281). L. T. acknowledges support from MIUR (PRIN 2017 grant 20179ZF5KS). Y. Y. acknowledges support from a Benoziyo Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Bengier-Winslow-Robertson Fellowship. This work was funded by ANID, Millennium Science Initiative, ICN12_009. Based in part on observations at the European Southern Observatory, Program IDs 199.D-0143, 0105.D-0380, 0106.D-0524, 1103.D-0328, 2102.D-5026, and 2104.D-5006 (PIs C. Inserra, S. Schulze, and S. J. Smartt); Gemini-South, Program ID 2021B-Q-901 (PI A. Gal-Yam); Hubble Space Telescope, Program ID GO-16657 (PI C. Fremling); Keck, Program IDs C323, U023, U025 (PIs S. R. Kulkarni, A. V. Filippenko); Large Binocular Telescope, Program ID DDT_2019B_13 (PI E. Palazzi); Las Cumbres Observatory, Program IDs FTPEPO2017AB-001, KEY2017AB-001, SUPA2019A-001, SUPA2019A-002, SUPA2019B-007, and NOAO2020B-012 (PIs P. J. Brown, K. De); Liverpool Telescope, Program IDs JL18B06, JL18B07, JL19A24, JL19B11, and JL20B15 (PI D. A. Perley); Nordic Optical Telescope, Program IDs 57-502, 58-802, and 61-606, (PIs G. Leloudas, J. Sollerman); P200 (PI L. Yan); and XMM-Newton, Program ID 08221501 (PI R. Margutti). We thank the staffs of the many observatories at which we conducted observations. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia, processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Part of the funding for GROND (both hardware as well as personnel) was generously granted from the Leibniz-Prize to Prof. G. Hasinger (DFG grant HA 1850/28-1). This work is based in part on observations made with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in Italy, the United States, and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; The University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona university system; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max Planck Society, the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University; and The Research Corporation on behalf of The University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, and University of Virginia. Some of the observations with the Las Cumbres Observatory data have been obtained via OPTICON proposals and as part of the Global Supernova Project. The OPTICON project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 730890. This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester. CRTS is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants AST-0909182, AST-1313422, and AST-1413600. The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) is a NASA-funded project supported by the Near Earth Object Observation Program (NEOO) under the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA and the U.S. NSF. Based in part on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48-inch and the 60-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the U.S. NSF under grant AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. The SED Machine is based upon work supported by the U.S. NSF under grant 1106171. Partially based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This work makes use of observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory network. The Las Cumbres Observatory team is supported by NSF grants AST-1911225 and AST-1911151. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA; the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. KAIT, and its ongoing operation were made possible by donations from Sun Microsystems, Inc., the Hewlett-Packard Company, AutoScope Corporation, the Lick Observatory, the U.S. NSF, the University of California, the Sylvia & Jim Katzman Foundation, and the TABASGO Foundation. A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3 m telescope at Lick Observatory was made possible through generous gifts from William and Marina Kast as well as the Heising-Simons Foundation. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1051/0004-6361/202346855Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Fransson, C., Kozyreva, A., Chen, T.-W., Yaron, O., Jerkstrand, A., Gal-Yam, A., Sollerman, J., Yan, L., Kangas, T., Leloudas, G., Omand, C. M. B., Smartt, S. J., Nicholl, M., Sarin, N., Yao, Y., Brink, T. G., Sharon, A., Rossi, A., Chen, P., ... Rusholme, B. (2024). 1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, Article A223. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346855

@article{cad8279572924161be4dc7d1f62b67aa,

title = "1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆",

abstract = "Stars with zero-age main sequence masses between 140 and 260 M⊙ are thought to explode as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). During their thermonuclear runaway, PISNe can produce up to several tens of solar masses of radioactive nickel, resulting in luminous transients similar to some superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). Yet, no unambiguous PISN has been discovered so far. SN 2018ibb is a hydrogen-poor SLSN at z = 0.166 that evolves extremely slowly compared to the hundreds of known SLSNe. Between mid 2018 and early 2022, we monitored its photometric and spectroscopic evolution from the UV to the near-infrared (NIR) with 2–10 m class telescopes. SN 2018ibb radiated > 3 × 1051 erg during its evolution, and its bolometric light curve reached > 2 × 1044 erg s−1 at its peak. The long-lasting rise of > 93 rest-frame days implies a long diffusion time, which requires a very high total ejected mass. The PISN mechanism naturally provides both the energy source (56Ni) and the long diffusion time. Theoretical models of PISNe make clear predictions as to their photometric and spectroscopic properties. SN 2018ibb complies with most tests on the light curves, nebular spectra and host galaxy, and potentially all tests with the interpretation we propose. Both the light curve and the spectra require 25–44 M⊙ of freshly nucleosynthesised 56Ni, pointing to the explosion of a metal-poor star with a helium core mass of 120–130 M⊙ at the time of death. This interpretation is also supported by the tentative detection of [Co II] λ 1.025 μm, which has never been observed in any other PISN candidate or SLSN before. We observe a significant excess in the blue part of the optical spectrum during the nebular phase, which is in tension with predictions of existing PISN models. However, we have compelling observational evidence for an eruptive mass-loss episode of the progenitor of SN 2018ibb shortly before the explosion, and our dataset reveals that the interaction of the SN ejecta with this oxygen-rich circumstellar material contributed to the observed emission. That may explain this specific discrepancy with PISN models. Powering by a central engine, such as a magnetar or a black hole, can be excluded with high confidence. This makes SN 2018ibb by far the best candidate for being a PISN, to date.",

author = "Claes Fransson and Alexandra Kozyreva and Ting-Wan Chen and Ofer Yaron and Anders Jerkstrand and Avishay Gal-Yam and Jesper Sollerman and Lin Yan and Tuomas Kangas and Giorgos Leloudas and Omand, {Conor M. B.} and Smartt, {Stephen J.} and Matt Nicholl and Nikhil Sarin and Yuhan Yao and Brink, {Thomas G.} and Amir Sharon and Andrea Rossi and Ping Chen and Zhihao Chen and Aleksandar Cikota and Kishalay De and Drake, {Andrew J.} and Filippenko, {Alexei V.} and Christoffer Fremling and Laurane Fr{\'e}our and Fynbo, {Johan P. U.} and Ho, {Anna Y. Q.} and Cosimo Inserra and Ido Irani and Hanindyo Kuncarayakti and Ragnhild Lunnan and Paolo Mazzali and Ofek, {Eran O.} and Eliana Palazzi and Perley, {Daniel A.} and Miika Pursiainen and Barry Rothberg and Shingles, {Luke J.} and Ken Smith and Kirsty Taggart and Leonardo Tartaglia and WeiKang Zheng and Anderson, {Joseph P.} and Letizia Cassara and Eric Christensen and {George Djorgovski}, S. and Llu{\'i}s Galbany and Anamaria Gkini and Graham, {Matthew J.} and Mariusz Gromadzki and Groom, {Steven L.} and Daichi Hiramatsu and {Andrew Howell}, D. and Kasliwal, {Mansi M.} and Curtis McCully and M{\"u}ller-Bravo, {Tom{\'a}s E.} and Simona Paiano and Emmanouela Paraskeva and Pessi, {Priscila J.} and David Polishook and Arne Rau and Mickael Rigault and Ben Rusholme",

note = "We thank the referee for a careful reading of the manuscript and for helpful comments that improved this paper. We thank St{\'e}phane Blondin (Laboratoire d{\textquoteright}Astrophysique de Marseille, France), Luc Dessart (Sorbonne Universit{\'e}, France), Sebastian Gomez (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA), Ryosuke Hirai (Monash University, Australia), Boaz Katz (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), Keiichi Maeda (Kyoto University, Japan), Ilya Mandel (Monash University, Australia), and Kanji Mori (Fukuoka University, Japan) for fruitful discussions. U.C. Berkeley undergraduate students Nachiket Girish, Andrew Hoffman, Evelyn Liu, Shaunak Modak, Jackson Sipple, Samantha Stegman, Kevin Tang, and Keto Zhang helped obtain data with the Lick/Nickel telescope. Z. C. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council. A. V. Filippenko{\textquoteright}s supernova group at U.C. Berkeley received financial support from the Christopher R. Redlich Fund, Gary & Cynthia Bengier, Clark & Sharon Winslow, Sanford Robertson, Frank and Kathleen Wood (T. G. Brink is a Wood Specialist in Astronomy), Alan Eustace (W. Zheng is a Eustace Specialist in Astronomy), and numerous other donors. C. F. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board. J. P. U. F. acknowledges support from the Carlsberg Foundation. The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant No. 140. M. G. is supported by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004719. A. J. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ERC Starting Grant No. [803189]). H. K. was funded by the Academy of Finland projects 324504 and 328898. G. L. and M. P. are supported by a research grant (19054) from VILLUM FONDEN. R. L. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 10104229 – TransPIre). T. E. M.-B. and L. G. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci{\'o}n (MCIN), the Agencia Estatal de Investigaci{\'o}n (AEI) 10.13039/501100011033, the European Social Fund (ESF) “Investing in your future”, and the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR funds under the PID2020-115253GA-I00 HOSTFLOWS project, the 2019 Ram{\'o}n y Cajal program RYC2019-027683-I, the 2021 Juan de la Cierva program FJC2021-047124-I, and from Centro Superior de Investigaciones Cient{\'i}ficas (CSIC) under the PIE project 20215AT016, and the program Unidad de Excelencia Mar{\'i}a de Maeztu CEX2020-001058-M. M. N. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 948381) and by a Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute. D. P. is grateful for the Wise Observatory staff. A. R. acknowledges support from Premiale LBT 2013. M. R. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 759194 – USNAC). N. S. is supported by a Nordita Fellowship. Nordita is funded in part by NordForsk. S. S. acknowledges support from the G.R.E.A.T. research environment, funded by Vetenskapsr{\aa}det, the Swedish Research Council, project number 2016-06012. L. J. S. acknowledges support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Advanced Grant KILONOVA No. 885281). L. T. acknowledges support from MIUR (PRIN 2017 grant 20179ZF5KS). Y. Y. acknowledges support from a Benoziyo Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Bengier-Winslow-Robertson Fellowship. This work was funded by ANID, Millennium Science Initiative, ICN12_009. Based in part on observations at the European Southern Observatory, Program IDs 199.D-0143, 0105.D-0380, 0106.D-0524, 1103.D-0328, 2102.D-5026, and 2104.D-5006 (PIs C. Inserra, S. Schulze, and S. J. Smartt); Gemini-South, Program ID 2021B-Q-901 (PI A. Gal-Yam); Hubble Space Telescope, Program ID GO-16657 (PI C. Fremling); Keck, Program IDs C323, U023, U025 (PIs S. R. Kulkarni, A. V. Filippenko); Large Binocular Telescope, Program ID DDT_2019B_13 (PI E. Palazzi); Las Cumbres Observatory, Program IDs FTPEPO2017AB-001, KEY2017AB-001, SUPA2019A-001, SUPA2019A-002, SUPA2019B-007, and NOAO2020B-012 (PIs P. J. Brown, K. De); Liverpool Telescope, Program IDs JL18B06, JL18B07, JL19A24, JL19B11, and JL20B15 (PI D. A. Perley); Nordic Optical Telescope, Program IDs 57-502, 58-802, and 61-606, (PIs G. Leloudas, J. Sollerman); P200 (PI L. Yan); and XMM-Newton, Program ID 08221501 (PI R. Margutti). We thank the staffs of the many observatories at which we conducted observations. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia, processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Part of the funding for GROND (both hardware as well as personnel) was generously granted from the Leibniz-Prize to Prof. G. Hasinger (DFG grant HA 1850/28-1). This work is based in part on observations made with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in Italy, the United States, and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; The University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona university system; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max Planck Society, the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University; and The Research Corporation on behalf of The University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, and University of Virginia. Some of the observations with the Las Cumbres Observatory data have been obtained via OPTICON proposals and as part of the Global Supernova Project. The OPTICON project has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 730890. This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester. CRTS is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants AST-0909182, AST-1313422, and AST-1413600. The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) is a NASA-funded project supported by the Near Earth Object Observation Program (NEOO) under the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA and the U.S. NSF. Based in part on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48-inch and the 60-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the U.S. NSF under grant AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. The SED Machine is based upon work supported by the U.S. NSF under grant 1106171. Partially based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This work makes use of observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory network. The Las Cumbres Observatory team is supported by NSF grants AST-1911225 and AST-1911151. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA; the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. KAIT, and its ongoing operation were made possible by donations from Sun Microsystems, Inc., the Hewlett-Packard Company, AutoScope Corporation, the Lick Observatory, the U.S. NSF, the University of California, the Sylvia & Jim Katzman Foundation, and the TABASGO Foundation. A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3 m telescope at Lick Observatory was made possible through generous gifts from William and Marina Kast as well as the Heising-Simons Foundation. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google.",

year = "2024",

month = mar,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1051/0004-6361/202346855",

language = "English",

volume = "683",

journal = "Astronomy and Astrophysics",

issn = "0004-6361",

publisher = "EDP Sciences",

}

Fransson, C, Kozyreva, A, Chen, T-W, Yaron, O, Jerkstrand, A, Gal-Yam, A, Sollerman, J, Yan, L, Kangas, T, Leloudas, G, Omand, CMB, Smartt, SJ, Nicholl, M, Sarin, N, Yao, Y, Brink, TG, Sharon, A, Rossi, A, Chen, P, Chen, Z, Cikota, A, De, K, Drake, AJ, Filippenko, AV, Fremling, C, Fréour, L, Fynbo, JPU, Ho, AYQ, Inserra, C, Irani, I, Kuncarayakti, H, Lunnan, R, Mazzali, P, Ofek, EO, Palazzi, E, Perley, DA, Pursiainen, M, Rothberg, B, Shingles, LJ, Smith, K, Taggart, K, Tartaglia, L, Zheng, W, Anderson, JP, Cassara, L, Christensen, E, George Djorgovski, S, Galbany, L, Gkini, A, Graham, MJ, Gromadzki, M, Groom, SL, Hiramatsu, D, Andrew Howell, D, Kasliwal, MM, McCully, C, Müller-Bravo, TE, Paiano, S, Paraskeva, E, Pessi, PJ, Polishook, D, Rau, A, Rigault, M & Rusholme, B 2024, '1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 683, A223. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346855

TY - JOUR

T1 - 1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆

AU - Fransson, Claes

AU - Kozyreva, Alexandra

AU - Chen, Ting-Wan

AU - Yaron, Ofer

AU - Jerkstrand, Anders

AU - Gal-Yam, Avishay

AU - Sollerman, Jesper

AU - Yan, Lin

AU - Kangas, Tuomas

AU - Leloudas, Giorgos

AU - Omand, Conor M. B.

AU - Smartt, Stephen J.

AU - Nicholl, Matt

AU - Sarin, Nikhil

AU - Yao, Yuhan

AU - Brink, Thomas G.

AU - Sharon, Amir

AU - Rossi, Andrea

AU - Chen, Ping

AU - Chen, Zhihao

AU - Cikota, Aleksandar

AU - De, Kishalay

AU - Drake, Andrew J.

AU - Filippenko, Alexei V.

AU - Fremling, Christoffer

AU - Fréour, Laurane

AU - Fynbo, Johan P. U.

AU - Ho, Anna Y. Q.

AU - Inserra, Cosimo

AU - Irani, Ido

AU - Kuncarayakti, Hanindyo

AU - Lunnan, Ragnhild

AU - Mazzali, Paolo

AU - Ofek, Eran O.

AU - Palazzi, Eliana

AU - Perley, Daniel A.

AU - Pursiainen, Miika

AU - Rothberg, Barry

AU - Shingles, Luke J.

AU - Smith, Ken

AU - Taggart, Kirsty

AU - Tartaglia, Leonardo

AU - Zheng, WeiKang

AU - Anderson, Joseph P.

AU - Cassara, Letizia

AU - Christensen, Eric

AU - George Djorgovski, S.

AU - Galbany, Lluís

AU - Gkini, Anamaria

AU - Graham, Matthew J.

AU - Gromadzki, Mariusz

AU - Groom, Steven L.

AU - Hiramatsu, Daichi

AU - Andrew Howell, D.

AU - Kasliwal, Mansi M.

AU - McCully, Curtis

AU - Müller-Bravo, Tomás E.

AU - Paiano, Simona

AU - Paraskeva, Emmanouela

AU - Pessi, Priscila J.

AU - Polishook, David

AU - Rau, Arne

AU - Rigault, Mickael

AU - Rusholme, Ben

N1 - We thank the referee for a careful reading of the manuscript and for helpful comments that improved this paper. We thank Stéphane Blondin (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France), Luc Dessart (Sorbonne Université, France), Sebastian Gomez (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA), Ryosuke Hirai (Monash University, Australia), Boaz Katz (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), Keiichi Maeda (Kyoto University, Japan), Ilya Mandel (Monash University, Australia), and Kanji Mori (Fukuoka University, Japan) for fruitful discussions. U.C. Berkeley undergraduate students Nachiket Girish, Andrew Hoffman, Evelyn Liu, Shaunak Modak, Jackson Sipple, Samantha Stegman, Kevin Tang, and Keto Zhang helped obtain data with the Lick/Nickel telescope. Z. C. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council. A. V. Filippenko’s supernova group at U.C. Berkeley received financial support from the Christopher R. Redlich Fund, Gary & Cynthia Bengier, Clark & Sharon Winslow, Sanford Robertson, Frank and Kathleen Wood (T. G. Brink is a Wood Specialist in Astronomy), Alan Eustace (W. Zheng is a Eustace Specialist in Astronomy), and numerous other donors. C. F. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board. J. P. U. F. acknowledges support from the Carlsberg Foundation. The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant No. 140. M. G. is supported by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004719. A. J. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ERC Starting Grant No. [803189]). H. K. was funded by the Academy of Finland projects 324504 and 328898. G. L. and M. P. are supported by a research grant (19054) from VILLUM FONDEN. R. L. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 10104229 – TransPIre). T. E. M.-B. and L. G. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) 10.13039/501100011033, the European Social Fund (ESF) “Investing in your future”, and the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR funds under the PID2020-115253GA-I00 HOSTFLOWS project, the 2019 Ramón y Cajal program RYC2019-027683-I, the 2021 Juan de la Cierva program FJC2021-047124-I, and from Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) under the PIE project 20215AT016, and the program Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2020-001058-M. M. N. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 948381) and by a Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute. D. P. is grateful for the Wise Observatory staff. A. R. acknowledges support from Premiale LBT 2013. M. R. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 759194 – USNAC). N. S. is supported by a Nordita Fellowship. Nordita is funded in part by NordForsk. S. S. acknowledges support from the G.R.E.A.T. research environment, funded by Vetenskapsrådet, the Swedish Research Council, project number 2016-06012. L. J. S. acknowledges support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Advanced Grant KILONOVA No. 885281). L. T. acknowledges support from MIUR (PRIN 2017 grant 20179ZF5KS). Y. Y. acknowledges support from a Benoziyo Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Bengier-Winslow-Robertson Fellowship. This work was funded by ANID, Millennium Science Initiative, ICN12_009. Based in part on observations at the European Southern Observatory, Program IDs 199.D-0143, 0105.D-0380, 0106.D-0524, 1103.D-0328, 2102.D-5026, and 2104.D-5006 (PIs C. Inserra, S. Schulze, and S. J. Smartt); Gemini-South, Program ID 2021B-Q-901 (PI A. Gal-Yam); Hubble Space Telescope, Program ID GO-16657 (PI C. Fremling); Keck, Program IDs C323, U023, U025 (PIs S. R. Kulkarni, A. V. Filippenko); Large Binocular Telescope, Program ID DDT_2019B_13 (PI E. Palazzi); Las Cumbres Observatory, Program IDs FTPEPO2017AB-001, KEY2017AB-001, SUPA2019A-001, SUPA2019A-002, SUPA2019B-007, and NOAO2020B-012 (PIs P. J. Brown, K. De); Liverpool Telescope, Program IDs JL18B06, JL18B07, JL19A24, JL19B11, and JL20B15 (PI D. A. Perley); Nordic Optical Telescope, Program IDs 57-502, 58-802, and 61-606, (PIs G. Leloudas, J. Sollerman); P200 (PI L. Yan); and XMM-Newton, Program ID 08221501 (PI R. Margutti). We thank the staffs of the many observatories at which we conducted observations. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia, processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Part of the funding for GROND (both hardware as well as personnel) was generously granted from the Leibniz-Prize to Prof. G. Hasinger (DFG grant HA 1850/28-1). This work is based in part on observations made with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in Italy, the United States, and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; The University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona university system; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max Planck Society, the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University; and The Research Corporation on behalf of The University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, and University of Virginia. Some of the observations with the Las Cumbres Observatory data have been obtained via OPTICON proposals and as part of the Global Supernova Project. The OPTICON project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 730890. This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester. CRTS is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants AST-0909182, AST-1313422, and AST-1413600. The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) is a NASA-funded project supported by the Near Earth Object Observation Program (NEOO) under the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA and the U.S. NSF. Based in part on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48-inch and the 60-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the U.S. NSF under grant AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. The SED Machine is based upon work supported by the U.S. NSF under grant 1106171. Partially based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This work makes use of observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory network. The Las Cumbres Observatory team is supported by NSF grants AST-1911225 and AST-1911151. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA; the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. KAIT, and its ongoing operation were made possible by donations from Sun Microsystems, Inc., the Hewlett-Packard Company, AutoScope Corporation, the Lick Observatory, the U.S. NSF, the University of California, the Sylvia & Jim Katzman Foundation, and the TABASGO Foundation. A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3 m telescope at Lick Observatory was made possible through generous gifts from William and Marina Kast as well as the Heising-Simons Foundation. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google.

PY - 2024/3/1

Y1 - 2024/3/1

N2 - Stars with zero-age main sequence masses between 140 and 260 M⊙ are thought to explode as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). During their thermonuclear runaway, PISNe can produce up to several tens of solar masses of radioactive nickel, resulting in luminous transients similar to some superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). Yet, no unambiguous PISN has been discovered so far. SN 2018ibb is a hydrogen-poor SLSN at z = 0.166 that evolves extremely slowly compared to the hundreds of known SLSNe. Between mid 2018 and early 2022, we monitored its photometric and spectroscopic evolution from the UV to the near-infrared (NIR) with 2–10 m class telescopes. SN 2018ibb radiated > 3 × 1051 erg during its evolution, and its bolometric light curve reached > 2 × 1044 erg s−1 at its peak. The long-lasting rise of > 93 rest-frame days implies a long diffusion time, which requires a very high total ejected mass. The PISN mechanism naturally provides both the energy source (56Ni) and the long diffusion time. Theoretical models of PISNe make clear predictions as to their photometric and spectroscopic properties. SN 2018ibb complies with most tests on the light curves, nebular spectra and host galaxy, and potentially all tests with the interpretation we propose. Both the light curve and the spectra require 25–44 M⊙ of freshly nucleosynthesised 56Ni, pointing to the explosion of a metal-poor star with a helium core mass of 120–130 M⊙ at the time of death. This interpretation is also supported by the tentative detection of [Co II] λ 1.025 μm, which has never been observed in any other PISN candidate or SLSN before. We observe a significant excess in the blue part of the optical spectrum during the nebular phase, which is in tension with predictions of existing PISN models. However, we have compelling observational evidence for an eruptive mass-loss episode of the progenitor of SN 2018ibb shortly before the explosion, and our dataset reveals that the interaction of the SN ejecta with this oxygen-rich circumstellar material contributed to the observed emission. That may explain this specific discrepancy with PISN models. Powering by a central engine, such as a magnetar or a black hole, can be excluded with high confidence. This makes SN 2018ibb by far the best candidate for being a PISN, to date.

AB - Stars with zero-age main sequence masses between 140 and 260 M⊙ are thought to explode as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). During their thermonuclear runaway, PISNe can produce up to several tens of solar masses of radioactive nickel, resulting in luminous transients similar to some superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). Yet, no unambiguous PISN has been discovered so far. SN 2018ibb is a hydrogen-poor SLSN at z = 0.166 that evolves extremely slowly compared to the hundreds of known SLSNe. Between mid 2018 and early 2022, we monitored its photometric and spectroscopic evolution from the UV to the near-infrared (NIR) with 2–10 m class telescopes. SN 2018ibb radiated > 3 × 1051 erg during its evolution, and its bolometric light curve reached > 2 × 1044 erg s−1 at its peak. The long-lasting rise of > 93 rest-frame days implies a long diffusion time, which requires a very high total ejected mass. The PISN mechanism naturally provides both the energy source (56Ni) and the long diffusion time. Theoretical models of PISNe make clear predictions as to their photometric and spectroscopic properties. SN 2018ibb complies with most tests on the light curves, nebular spectra and host galaxy, and potentially all tests with the interpretation we propose. Both the light curve and the spectra require 25–44 M⊙ of freshly nucleosynthesised 56Ni, pointing to the explosion of a metal-poor star with a helium core mass of 120–130 M⊙ at the time of death. This interpretation is also supported by the tentative detection of [Co II] λ 1.025 μm, which has never been observed in any other PISN candidate or SLSN before. We observe a significant excess in the blue part of the optical spectrum during the nebular phase, which is in tension with predictions of existing PISN models. However, we have compelling observational evidence for an eruptive mass-loss episode of the progenitor of SN 2018ibb shortly before the explosion, and our dataset reveals that the interaction of the SN ejecta with this oxygen-rich circumstellar material contributed to the observed emission. That may explain this specific discrepancy with PISN models. Powering by a central engine, such as a magnetar or a black hole, can be excluded with high confidence. This makes SN 2018ibb by far the best candidate for being a PISN, to date.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193033597&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/202346855

DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202346855

M3 - Article

SN - 0004-6361

VL - 683

JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics

JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics

M1 - A223

ER -

1100 days in the life of the supernova 2018ibb - The best pair-instability supernova candidate, to date⋆

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