Hydrogenless Superluminous Supernova PTF12dam in the Model of an Explosion inside an Extended Envelope

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model for superluminous supernova PTF12dam involving an explosion within a dense, hydrogenless envelope, explaining its light curve without needing a magnetar, challenging previous models based on pair-instability or magnetar energy input.

Contribution

It introduces a novel explosion-in-envelope model that accounts for PTF12dam's light curve without requiring a magnetar or excessive explosion energy.

Findings

The model successfully reproduces the supernova's light curve.

It explains the rapid flux rise without pair-instability or magnetar assumptions.

The explosion energy needed is not excessively large.

Abstract

A model of a supernova explosion inside a dense extended hydrogenless envelope is proposed to explain the properties of the light curve for one of the superluminous supernovae PTF12dam. It is argued in the literature that the flux of this supernova rises too fast to be explained by the explosion model due to the instability associated with the electron-positron pair production (pair-instability supernova, PISNe), but it is well described by the models with energy input by a magnetar. We show that the PTF12dam-type supernovae can be explained without a magnetar in a model with a radiative shock in a dense circumstellar envelope that does not require an excessively large explosion energy.