The nuclear starburst in Arp 299-A: From the 5.0 GHz VLBI radio light-curves to its core-collapse supernova rate

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution radio observations to identify and characterize compact sources in Arp 299-A, estimating a core-collapse supernova rate of at least 0.80 SN/yr, indicating intense recent star formation in its nuclear region.

Contribution

It provides the first multi-epoch VLBI imaging of Arp 299-A's nuclear region, identifying new supernovae and refining the supernova rate estimate using both compact sources and diffuse emission.

Findings

Detected 26 compact radio sources, including 8 new objects.

Estimated a supernova rate of at least 0.80 SN/yr.

Diffuse emission supports supernova rate estimates consistent with previous work.

Abstract

The nuclear region of the Luminous Infra-red Galaxy Arp 299-A hosts a recent ($\simeq 10$ Myr), intense burst of massive star formation which is expected to lead to numerous core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Previous VLBI observations, carried out with the EVN at 5.0 GHz and with the VLBA at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz, resulted in the detection of a large number of compact, bright, non-thermal sources in a region $\lsim$150 pc in size. We aim at establishing the nature of all non-thermal, compact components in Arp 299-A, as well as estimating its core-collapse supernova rate. We use multi-epoch European VLBI Network (EVN) observations taken at 5.0 GHz to image with milliarcsecond resolution the compact radio sources in the nuclear region of Arp 299-A. We also use one single-epoch 5.0 GHz Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) observation to image the extended emission in which the compact radio sources --traced by our EVN observations-- are embedded. Twenty-six compact sources are detected, 8 of them are new objects not previously detected. The properties of all detected objects are consistent with them being a mixed population of CCSNe and SNRs. We find clear evidence for at least two new CCSNe, implying a lower limit to the CCSN rate of $\nu_{\rm SN}\gsim$0.80 SN/yr indicating that the bulk of the current star formation in Arp 299-A is taking place in the innermost $\sim 150$ pc. Our MERLIN observations trace a region of diffuse, extended emission which is co-spatial to the region where all compact sources are found. From this diffuse, non-thermal radio emission we obtain an independent estimate for the core-collapse supernova rate, which is in the range $\nu_{\rm SN}=0.40$ - 0.65 SN/yr, roughly in agreement with previous estimates and our direct estimate of the CCSN rate from the compact radio emission.