Superluminous supernova progenitors have a half-solar metallicity threshold

TL;DR

This study shows that superluminous supernovae generally originate in low-metallicity environments, with a proposed metallicity threshold of about half solar, and suggests a link between progenitor properties and host galaxy metallicity.

Contribution

It identifies a metallicity threshold for superluminous supernova progenitors and explores the relationship between host galaxy properties and supernova characteristics.

Findings

Superluminous supernovae hosts are typically below 0.5 Z_sol metallicity.

High specific star-formation rates are common in these hosts due to low metallicity.

A potential correlation exists between magnetar initial spins and host galaxy metallicity.

Abstract

Host galaxy properties provide strong constraints on the stellar progenitors of superluminous supernovae. By comparing a sample of 19 low-redshift (z < 0.3) superluminous supernova hosts to galaxy populations in the local Universe, we show that sub-solar metallicities seem to be a requirement. All superluminous supernovae in hosts with high measured gas-phase metallicities are found to explode at large galactocentric radii, indicating that the metallicity at the explosion site is likely lower than the integrated host value. We found that superluminous supernovae hosts do not always have star-formation rates higher than typical star-forming galaxies of the same mass. However, we confirm that high absolute specific star-formation rates are a feature of superluminous supernova host galaxies, but interpret this as simply a consequence of the anti-correlation between gas-phase metallicity and specific star-formation rate and the requirement of on-going star formation to produce young, massive stars greater than ~ 10-20 M_sol. Based on our sample, we propose an upper limit of ~ 0.5 Z_sol for forming superluminous supernova progenitors (assuming an N2 metallicity diagnostic and a solar oxygen abundance of 8.69). Finally, we show that if magnetar powering is the source of the extreme luminosity then the required initial spins appear to be correlated with metallicity of the host galaxy. This correlation needs further work, but if it holds it is a powerful link between the supernova parameters and nature of the progenitor population.