A Multiple Ejecta-Circumstellar Meduim Interaction Model and Its Implications for the Superluminous Supernova iPTF15esb

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiple ejecta-CSM interaction model to explain the complex light curve and spectral features of the superluminous supernova iPTF15esb, revealing insights into its progenitor's mass-loss history.

Contribution

The study develops a novel multi-shell ejecta-CSM interaction model that successfully reproduces the observed light curve and spectral features of iPTF15esb, providing new understanding of pre-supernova mass loss.

Findings

The model accurately fits the observed light curve of iPTF15esb.

Progenitor experienced at least three violent mass-loss events.

CSM shell densities increase as their masses decrease closer to explosion.

Abstract

Recently, a hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova (SLSN) iPTF15esb at redshift $z=0.224$ was reported, whose light curve (LC) and spectrum show several unusual characteristics. Its late-time spectrum shows a strong, broad H$\alpha $ emission line and the bolometric LC exhibits two peaks and a post-peak plateau. Here we propose an ejecta-circumstellar medium (CSM) interaction model involving multiple shells and winds to explain this double-peak SN. We find that the theoretical LC reproduced by this model can well match the observations of iPTF15esb. Based on this result, we infer that the progenitor has undergone at least three violent mass-loss processes before the SN explosion. Furthermore, we find that the masses of the CSM wind and shells from the outermost shell (the first eruption) to the innermost wind (the final eruption) decrease sequentially but their densities increase. The variation trend of the inferred densities of the shells and wind is consistent with the stellar structure before an SN explosion. Further investigations for similar SLSNe would provide a probe for the mass-loss history of their progenitors.