ALBERT

Description: We present Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) Wide Field Camera 3 UV and near-IR (nIR) imaging of 21 Superluminous Supernovae (SLSNe) host galaxies, providing a sensitive probe of star formation and stellar mass within the hosts. Comparing the photometric and morphological properties of these host galaxies with those of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs), we find SLSN hosts are fainter and more compact at both UV and nIR wavelengths, in some cases we barely recover hosts with absolute magnitude around M V –14. With the addition of ground based optical observations and archival results, we produce spectral energy distribution fits to these hosts, and show that SLSN hosts possess lower stellar mass and star formation rates. This is most pronounced for the hydrogen deficient Type-I SLSN hosts, although Type-II H-rich SLSN host galaxies remain distinct from the bulk of CCSNe, spanning a remarkably broad range of absolute magnitudes, with ~30 per cent of SLSNe-II arising from galaxies fainter than M nIR ~ –14. The detection of our faintest SLSN hosts increases the confidence that SLSNe-I hosts are distinct from those of LGRBs in star formation rate and stellar mass, and suggests that apparent similarities in metallicity may be due to the limited fraction of hosts for which emission line metallicity measurements are feasible. The broad range of luminosities of SLSN-II hosts is difficult to describe by metallicity cuts, and does not match the expectations of any reasonable UV-weighted luminosity function, suggesting additional environmental constraints are likely necessary to yield hydrogen rich SLSNe.

Description: Literature data are collated for 38 stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae (SE SNe; i.e. SNe IIb, Ib, Ic and Ic-BL) that have good light-curve coverage in more than one optical band. Using bolometric corrections derived in previous work, the bolometric light curve of each SN is recovered and template bolometric light curves provided. Peak light distributions and decay rates are investigated; SNe subtypes are not cleanly distinguished in this parameter space, although some grouping of types does occur and there is a suggestion of a Phillips-like relation for most SNe Ic-BL. The bolometric light curves are modelled with a simple analytical prescription and compared to results from more detailed modelling. Distributions of the explosion parameters show the extreme nature of SNe Ic-BL in terms of their 56 Ni mass and the kinetic energy, however ejected masses are similar to other subtypes. SNe Ib and Ic have very similar distributions of explosion parameters, indicating a similarity in progenitors. SNe IIb are the most homogeneous subtype and have the lowest average values for 56 Ni mass, ejected mass, and kinetic energy. Ejecta masses for each subtype and SE SNe as a whole are inconsistent with those expected from very massive stars. The majority of the ejecta mass distribution is well described by more moderately massive progenitors in binaries, indicating these are the dominant progenitor channel for SE SNe.

Description: We present deep Very Large Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope observations of the nearest examples of Ca-rich ‘gap’ transients – rapidly evolving transient events, with a luminosity intermediate between novae and supernovae. These sources are frequently found at large galactocentric offsets, and their progenitors remain mysterious. Our observations find no convincing underlying quiescent sources coincident with the locations of these transients, allowing us to rule out a number of potential progenitor systems. The presence of surviving massive-star binary companions (or other cluster members) is ruled out, providing an independent rejection of a massive star origin for these events. Dwarf satellite galaxies are disfavoured unless one invokes as yet unknown conditions that would be extremely favourable for their production in the lowest mass systems. Our limits also probe the majority of the globular cluster luminosity function, ruling out the presence of an underlying globular cluster population at high significance, and thus the possibility that they are created via dynamical interactions in dense globular cluster cores. Given the lack of underlying systems, previous progenitor suggestions have difficulty reproducing the remote locations of these transients, even when considering solely halo-borne progenitors. Our preferred scenario is that Ca-rich transients are high-velocity, kicked systems, exploding at large distances from their natal site. Coupled with a long-lived progenitor system post-kick, this naturally explains the lack of association these transients have with their host stellar light, and the extreme host-offsets exhibited. Neutron star–white dwarf mergers may be a promising progenitor system in this scenario.

Description: This paper presents one of the first environmental analyses of the locations of the class of ‘interacting transients’, namely Type IIn supernovae (SNe) and SN impostors. We discuss the association of these transients with star formation, host galaxy type, metallicity and the locations of each event within the respective host. Given the frequent assumption of very high mass progenitors for these explosions from various studies, most notably a direct progenitor detection, it is interesting to note the weak association of these subtypes with star formation as traced by Hα emission, particularly in comparison with Type Ic SNe, which trace the Hα emission and are thought to arise from high-mass progenitors. The radial distributions of these transients compared to Type Ic SNe are also very different. This provides evidence for the growing hypothesis that these ‘interacting transients’ are in fact comprised of a variety of progenitor systems. The events contained within this sample are discussed in detail, where information in the literature exists, and compared to the environmental data provided. Impostors are found to split into two main classes, in terms of environment: SN 2008S-like impostors fall on regions of zero Hα emission, whereas Carina-like impostors all fall on regions with positive Hα emission. We also find indications that the impostor class originate from lower metallicity environments than Type IIn, Ic and IIP SNe.

Description: Calcium-rich supernovae (SNe) represent a significant challenge for our understanding of the fates of stellar systems. They are less luminous than other SN types and they evolve more rapidly to reveal nebular spectra dominated by strong calcium lines with weak or absent signatures of other intermediate- and iron-group elements, which are seen in other SNe. Strikingly, their explosion sites also mark them out as distinct from other SN types. Their galactocentric offset distribution is strongly skewed to very large offsets (~1/3 are offset 〉20 kpc), meaning they do not trace the stellar light of their hosts. Many of the suggestions to explain this extreme offset distribution have invoked the necessity for unusual formation sites such as globular clusters or dwarf satellite galaxies, which are therefore difficult to detect. Building on previous work attempting to detect host systems of nearby Ca-rich SNe, we here present Hubble Space Telescope imaging of five members of the class – three exhibiting large offsets and two coincident with the disc of their hosts. We find no underlying sources at the explosion sites of any of our sample. Combining with previous work, the lack of a host system now appears to be a ubiquitous feature amongst Ca-rich SNe. In this case the offset distribution is most readily explained as a signature of high-velocity progenitor systems that have travelled significant distances before exploding.

Description: We present a study of the properties of the host galaxies of unusual transient objects of two types, both being subluminous compared with the major classes of supernovae. Those of one type exhibit unusually strong calcium features, and have been termed ‘Ca-rich’. Those of the second type, with SN2002cx as the prototype and SN2008ha as the most extreme example to date, have some properties in common with the first, but show typically lower ejecta velocities and different early spectra. We confirm important differences in the environments of the two types, with the Ca-rich transients preferentially occurring in galaxies dominated by old stellar populations. Quantitatively, the association of the Ca-rich transients with regions of ongoing star formation is well matched to that of Type Ia supernovae. The SN2002cx-like transients are very different, with none of the present sample occurring in an early-type host, and a statistical association with star-formation regions similar to that of Type II-P supernovae, and therefore a delay time of 30–50 Myr.

Description: Through the creation of spectral energy distributions for well-observed literature core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), we present corrections to transform optical light curves to full bolometric light curves. These corrections take the form of parabolic fits to optical colours, with B  –  I and g  – r presented as exemplary fits, while parameters for fits to other colours are also given. We find evolution of the corrections with colour to be extremely homogeneous across CCSNe of all types in the majority of cases, and also present fits for stripped-envelope and Type II SNe separately. A separate fit, appropriate for SNe exhibiting strong emission due to cooling after shock breakout, is presented. Such a method will homogenize the creation of bolometric light curves for CCSNe where observations cannot constrain the emitted flux – of particular importance for current and future SN surveys where typical follow-up of the vast majority of events will occur only in the optical window, resulting in consistent comparisons of modelling involving bolometric light curves. Test cases for SNe 1987A and 2009jf using the method presented here are shown, and the bolometric light curves are recovered with excellent accuracy in each case.

Description: We characterised the oxygen abundance radial distribution of a sample of 102 spiral galaxies observed with VLT/MUSE using the O3N2 calibrator. The high spatial resolution of the data allowed us to detect 14345 H ii regions with the same image quality as with photometric data, avoiding any dilution effect. We developed a new methodology to automatically fit the abundance radial profiles, finding that 55 galaxies of the sample exhibit a single negative gradient. The remaining 47 galaxies also display, as well as this negative trend, either an inner drop in the abundances (21), an outer flattening (10), or both (16), which suggests that these features are a common property of disc galaxies. The presence and depth of the inner drop depends on the stellar mass of the galaxies with the most massive systems presenting the deepest abundance drops, while there is no such dependence in the case of the outer flattening. We find that the inner drop appears always around 0.5 re, while the position of the outer flattening varies over a wide range of galactocentric distances. Regarding the main negative gradient, we find a characteristic slope in the sample of αO/H =−0.10 ± 0.03 dex /re. This slope is independent of the presence of bars and the density of the environment. However, when inner drops or outer flattenings are detected, slightly steeper gradients are observed. This suggests that radial motions might play an important role in shaping the abundance profiles. We define a new normalisation scale (“the abundance scale length”, rO/H) for the radial profiles based on the characteristic abundance gradient, with which all the galaxies show a similar position for the inner drop (~0.5 rO/H) and the outer flattening (~1.5 rO/H). Finally, we find no significant dependence of the dispersion around the negative gradient with any property of the galaxies, with values compatible with the uncertainties associated with the derivation of the abundances.

Description: We searched for an optical counterpart to the first gravitational-wave source discovered by LIGO (GW150914), using a combination of the Pan-STARRS1 wide-field telescope and the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) spectroscopic follow-up programme. As the final LIGO sky maps changed during analysis, the total probability of the source being spatially coincident with our fields was finally only 4.2 per cent. Therefore, we discuss our results primarily as a demonstration of the survey capability of Pan-STARRS and spectroscopic capability of PESSTO. We mapped out 442 deg 2 of the northern sky region of the initial map. We discovered 56 astrophysical transients over a period of 41 d from the discovery of the source. Of these, 19 were spectroscopically classified and a further 13 have host galaxy redshifts. All transients appear to be fairly normal supernovae (SNe) and AGN variability and none is obviously linked with GW150914. We illustrate the sensitivity of our survey by defining parametrized light curves with time-scales of 4, 20 and 40 d and use the sensitivity of the Pan-STARRS1 images to set limits on the luminosities of possible sources. The Pan-STARRS1 images reach limiting magnitudes of i P1 = 19.2, 20.0 and 20.8, respectively, for the three time-scales. For long time-scale parametrized light curves (with full width half-maximum ~=40 d), we set upper limits of $M_i \le -17.2^{-0.9}_{+1.4}$ if the distance to GW150914 is D L = 400 ± 200 Mpc. The number of Type Ia SN we find in the survey is similar to that expected from the cosmic SN rate, indicating a reasonably complete efficiency in recovering SN like transients out to D L = 400 ± 200 Mpc.