The Superluminous (Type I) Supernova ASASSN-15lh : A case for a Quark-Nova inside an Oxygen-type Wolf-Rayet supernova remnant

TL;DR

This paper proposes that a Quark-Nova occurring shortly after a Wolf-Rayet star supernova can explain the extreme brightness, double-peaked light curve, and spectral features of the superluminous supernova ASASSN-15lh.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model combining a Quark-Nova with a Wolf-Rayet supernova remnant to explain superluminous supernova observations.

Findings

The model reproduces the double-peaked light curve of ASASSN-15lh.

It accounts for the high energetics (>10^52 ergs) of the event.

The spectral features are consistent with a re-heated Wolf-Rayet remnant.

Abstract

We show that a Quark-Nova (QN; the explosive transition of a neutron star to a quark star) occurring a few days following the supernova explosion of an Oxygen-type Wolf-Rayet (WO) star can account for the intriguing features of ASASSN-15lh, including its extreme energetics, its double-peaked light-curve and the evolution of its photospheric radius and temperature. A two-component configuration of the homologously expanding WO remnant (an extended envelope and a compact core) is used to harness the kinetic energy (>10^52 ergs) of the QN ejecta. The delay between the WO SN and the QN yields a large (~ 10^4 Rsun) envelope which when energized by the QN ejecta/shock gives the first peak in our model. As the envelope's photosphere recedes into the slowly expanding, hot and insulated, denser core (initially heated by the QN shock) a second hump emerges. The spectrum in our model should reflect the composition of an WO SN remnant re-heated by a QN going off in its wake.