Studying the Ultraviolet Spectrum of the First Spectroscopically Confirmed Supernova at Redshift Two Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Abstract We present observations of DES16C2nm, the first spectroscopically confirmed hydrogen-free superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) at redshift . DES16C2nm was discovered by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Supernova Program, with follow-up photometric data from the Hubble Space Telescope, Gemini, and the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope supplementing the DES data. Spectroscopic observations confirm DES16C2nm to be at z=1.998, and spectroscopically similar to Gaia16apd (a SLSN-I at z=0.102), with a peak absolute magnitude of . The high redshift of DES16C2nm provides a unique opportunity to study the ultraviolet (UV) properties of SLSNe-I. Combining DES16C2nm with 10 similar events from the literature, we show that there exists a homogeneous class of SLSNe-I in the UV ( ), with peak luminosities in the (rest-frame) U band, and increasing absorption to shorter wavelengths. There is no evidence that the mean photometric and spectroscopic properties of SLSNe-I differ between low ( ) and high redshift ( ), but there is clear evidence of diversity in the spectrum at m A} $?> , possibly caused by the variations in temperature between events. No significant correlations are observed between spectral line velocities and photometric luminosity. Using these data, we estimate that SLSNe-I can be discovered to z=3.8 by DES. While SLSNe-I are typically identified from their blue observed colors at low redshift ( ), we highlight that at these events appear optically red, peaking in the observer-frame z-band. Such characteristics are critical to identify these objects with future facilities such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Euclid, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope, which should detect such SLSNe-I to z=3.5, 3.7, and 6.6, respectively.

published proceedings

  • ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

altmetric score

  • 206.136

author list (cited authors)

  • Smith, M., Sullivan, M., Nichol, R. C., Galbany, L., D'Andrea, C. B., Inserra, C., ... Walker, A. R.

citation count

  • 26

complete list of authors

  • Smith, M||Sullivan, M||Nichol, RC||Galbany, L||D'Andrea, CB||Inserra, C||Lidman, C||Rest, A||Schirmer, M||Filippenko, AV||Zheng, W||Cenko, S Bradley||Angus, CR||Brown, PJ||Davis, TM||Finley, DA||Foley, RJ||Gonzalez-Gaitan, S||Gutierrez, CP||Kessler, R||Kuhlmann, S||Marriner, J||Moller, A||Nugent, PE||Prajs, S||Thomas, R||Wolf, R||Zenteno, A||Abbott, TMC||Abdalla, FB||Allam, S||Annis, J||Bechtol, K||Benoit-Levy, A||Bertin, E||Brooks, D||Burke, DL||Rosell, A Carnero||Kind, M Carrasco||Carretero, J||Castander, FJ||Crocce, M||Cunha, CE||da Costa, LN||Davis, C||Desai, S||Diehl, HT||Doel, P||Eifler, TF||Flaugher, B||Fosalba, P||Frieman, J||Garcia-Bellido, J||Gaztanaga, E||Gerdes, DW||Goldstein, DA||Gruen, D||Gruendl, RA||Gschwend, J||Gutierrez, G||Honscheid, K||James, DJ||Johnson, MWG||Kuehn, K||Kuropatkin, N||Li, TS||Lima, M||Maia, MAG||Marshall, JL||Martini, P||Menanteau, F||Miller, CJ||Miquel, R||Ogando, RLC||Petravick, D||Plazas, AA||Romer, AK||Rykoff, ES||Sako, M||Sanchez, E||Scarpine, V||Schindler, R||Schubnell, M||Sevilla-Noarbe, I||Smith, RC||Soares-Santos, M||Sobreira, F||Suchyta, E||Swanson, MEC||Tarle, G||Walker, AR

publication date

  • February 2018