Eruptive mass loss less than a year before the explosion of superluminous supernovae: I. The cases of SN 2020xga and SN 2022xgc

TL;DR

This study investigates two superluminous supernovae, revealing that their massive, fast-moving circumstellar shells were expelled months before explosion, and explores their powering mechanisms, favoring energetic magnetars over pulsational pair instability.

Contribution

It provides detailed modeling of pre-explosion circumstellar shells and evaluates the magnetar powering scenario, challenging the PPI mass loss explanation for these supernovae.

Findings

CSM shells expelled 5-11 months before explosion

Magnetar models suggest very energetic central engines

Inconsistent with pulsational pair instability scenario

Abstract

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2020xga and SN 2022xgc, two hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) at $z = 0.4296$ and $z = 0.3103$, respectively, which show an additional set of broad Mg II absorption lines, blueshifted by a few thousands kilometer second$^{-1}$ with respect to the host galaxy absorption system. Previous work interpreted this as due to resonance line scattering of the SLSN continuum by rapidly expanding circumstellar material (CSM) expelled shortly before the explosion. The peak rest-frame $g$-band magnitude of SN 2020xga is $-22.30 \pm 0.04$ mag and of SN 2022xgc is $-21.97 \pm 0.05$ mag, placing them among the brightest SLSNe-I. We used high-quality spectra from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths to model the Mg II line profiles and infer the properties of the CSM shells. We find that the CSM shell of SN 2020xga resides at $\sim 1.3 \times 10^{16}~\rm cm$, moving with a maximum velocity of $4275~\rm km~s^{-1}$, and the shell of SN 2022xgc is located at $\sim 0.8 \times 10^{16}~\rm cm$, reaching up to $4400~\rm km~s^{-1}$. These shells were expelled $\sim 11$ and $\sim 5$ months before the explosions of SN 2020xga and SN 2022xgc, respectively, possibly as a result of luminous-blue-variable-like eruptions or pulsational pair instability (PPI) mass loss. We also analyzed optical photometric data and modeled the light curves, considering powering from the magnetar spin-down mechanism. The results support very energetic magnetars, approaching the mass-shedding limit, powering these SNe with ejecta masses of $\sim 7-9~\rm M_\odot$. The ejecta masses inferred from the magnetar modeling are not consistent with the PPI scenario pointing toward stars $> 50~\rm M_\odot$ He-core; hence, alternative scenarios such as fallback accretion and CSM interaction are discussed.