No Arabic abstract
We present the expected observational properties of a general relativistic instability supernova (GRSN) from the 55,500 Msun primordial (Population III) star. Supermassive stars exceeding 1e4 Msun may exist in the early Universe. They are generally considered to collapse through the general relativistic instability to be seed black holes to form supermassive (~ 1e9 Msun) black holes observed as high-redshift quasars. Some of them, however, may explode as GRSNe if the explosive helium burning unbinds the supermassive stars following the collapse triggered by the general relativistic instability. We perform the radiation hydrodynamics simulation of the GRSN starting shortly before the shock breakout. We find that the GRSN is characterized by a long-lasting (550 d) luminous (1.5e44 erg/s) plateau phase with the photospheric temperature of around 5000 K in the rest frame. The plateau phase lasts for decades when it appears at high redshifts and it will likely be observed as a persistent source in the future deep near-infrared imaging surveys. Especially, the near-infrared images reaching 29 AB magnitude that can be obtained by Galaxy and Reionization EXplorer (G-REX) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) allow us to identify GRSNe up to z ~ 15. Deeper images enable us to discover GRSNe at even higher redshifts. Having extremely red color, they can be distinguished from other persistent sources such as high-redshift galaxies by using color information. We conclude that the deep near-infrared images are able to constrain the existence of GRSNe from the primordial supermassive stars in the Universe even without the time domain information.
The formation of supermassive Population III stars with masses $gtrsim$ 10,000 Msun in primeval galaxies in strong UV backgrounds at $z sim$ 15 may be the most viable pathway to the formation of supermassive black holes by $z sim$ 7. Most of these stars are expected to live for short times and then directly collapse to black holes, with little or no mass loss over their lives. But we have now discovered that non-rotating primordial stars with masses close to 55,000 Msun can instead die as highly energetic thermonuclear supernovae powered by explosive helium burning, releasing up to 10$ ^{55}$ erg, or about 10,000 times the energy of a Type Ia supernova. The explosion is triggered by the general relativistic contribution of thermal photons to gravity in the core of the star, which causes the core to contract and explosively burn. The energy release completely unbinds the star, leaving no compact remnant, and about half of the mass of the star is ejected into the early cosmos in the form of heavy elements. The explosion would be visible in the near infrared at $z lesssim$ 20 to {it Euclid} and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), perhaps signaling the birth of supermassive black hole seeds and the first quasars.
The interaction of a supernova with a circumstellar medium (CSM) can dramatically increase the emitted luminosity by converting kinetic energy to thermal energy. In superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) of Type IIn -- named for narrow hydrogen lines in their spectra -- the integrated emission can reach $sim 10^{51}$ erg, attainable by thermalising most of the kinetic energy of a conventional SN. A few transients in the centres of active galaxies have shown similar spectra and even larger energies, but are difficult to distinguish from accretion onto the supermassive black hole. Here we present a new event, SN2016aps, offset from the centre of a low-mass galaxy, that radiated $gtrsim 5 times 10^{51}$ erg, necessitating a hyper-energetic supernova explosion. We find a total (SN ejecta $+$ CSM) mass likely exceeding 50-100 M$_odot$, with energy $gtrsim 10^{52}$ erg, consistent with some models of pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) or pulsational PISNe -- theoretically-predicted thermonuclear explosions from helium cores $>50$ M$_odot$. Independent of the explosion mechanism, this event demonstrates the existence of extremely energetic stellar explosions, detectable at very high redshifts, and provides insight into dense CSM formation in the most massive stars.
We present multi-band photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2018cuf, a Type IIP (P for plateau) supernova (SN) discovered by the Distance Less Than 40 Mpc survey (DLT40) within 24 hours of explosion. SN 2018cuf appears to be a typical Type IIP SN, with an absolute $V$-band magnitude of $-$16.73 $pm$ 0.32 at maximum and a decline rate of 0.21 $pm$ 0.05 mag/50d during the plateau phase. The distance of the object is constrained to be 41.8 $pm$ 5.7 Mpc by using the expanding photosphere method. We use spectroscopic and photometric observations from the first year after the explosion to constrain the progenitor of SN 2018cuf using both hydrodynamic light curve modelling and late-time spectroscopic modelling. The progenitor of SN 2018cuf was most likely a red supergiant of about 14.5 $rm M_{odot}$ that produced 0.04 $pm$ 0.01 $rm M_{odot}$ $rm ^{56}Ni$ during the explosion. We also found $sim$ 0.07 $rm M_{odot}$ of circumstellar material (CSM) around the progenitor is needed to fit the early light curves, where the CSM may originate from pre-supernova outbursts. During the plateau phase, high velocity features at $rm sim 11000 km~s^{-1}$ are detected both in the optical and near-infrared spectra, supporting the possibility that the ejecta were interacting with some CSM. A very shallow slope during the post-plateau phase is also observed and it is likely due to a low degree of nickel mixing or the relatively high nickel mass in the SN.
We report the discovery and initial follow-up of a double neutron star (DNS) system, PSR J1946$+$2052, with the Arecibo L-Band Feed Array pulsar (PALFA) survey. PSR J1946$+$2052 is a 17-ms pulsar in a 1.88-hour, eccentric ($e , =, 0.06$) orbit with a $gtrsim 1.2 , M_odot$ companion. We have used the Jansky Very Large Array to localize PSR J1946$+$2052 to a precision of 0.09 arcseconds using a new phase binning mode. We have searched multiwavelength catalogs for coincident sources but did not find any counterparts. The improved position enabled a measurement of the spin period derivative of the pulsar ($dot{P} , = , 9,pm , 2 ,times 10^{-19}$); the small inferred magnetic field strength at the surface ($B_S , = , 4 , times , 10^9 , rm G$) indicates that this pulsar has been recycled. This and the orbital eccentricity lead to the conclusion that PSR J1946$+$2052 is in a DNS system. Among all known radio pulsars in DNS systems, PSR J1946$+$2052 has the shortest orbital period and the shortest estimated merger timescale, 46 Myr; at that time it will display the largest spin effects on gravitational wave waveforms of any such system discovered to date. We have measured the advance of periastron passage for this system, $dot{omega} , = , 25.6 , pm , 0.3, deg rm yr^{-1}$, implying a total system mass of only 2.50 $pm$ 0.04 $M_odot$, so it is among the lowest mass DNS systems. This total mass measurement combined with the minimum companion mass constrains the pulsar mass to $lesssim 1.3 , M_odot$.
The fast variability of energetic TeV photons from the center of M87 has been detected, offering a new clue to estimate spins of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We extend the study of Wang et al. (2008) by including all of general relativistic effects. We numerically solve the full set of relativistic hydrodynamical equations of the radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) and then obtain the radiation fields around the black hole. The optical depth of the radiation fields to TeV photons due to pair productions are calculated in the Kerr metric. We find that the optical depth strongly depends on: (1) accretion rates as $tautevpropto dot{M}^{2.5-5.0}$; (2) black hole spins; and (3) location of the TeV source. Jointly considering the optical depth and the spectral energy distribution radiated from the RIAFs, the strong degeneration of the spin with the other free parameters in the RIAF model can be largely relaxed. We apply the present model to M87, wherein the RIAFs are expected to be at work, and find that the minimum specific angular momentum of the hole is $asim0.8$. The present methodology is applicable to M87-like sources with future detection of TeV emissions to constrain the spins of SMBHs.