16 research outputs found
Late time HST UV and optical observations of AT~2018cow: extracting a cow from its background
The bright, blue, rapidly evolving AT2018cow is a well-studied peculiar
extragalactic transient. Despite an abundance of multi-wavelength data, there
still is no consensus on the nature of the event. We present our analysis of
three epochs of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations spanning the period
from 713-1474 days post burst, paying particular attention to uncertainties of
the transient photometry introduced by the complex background in which
AT2018cow resides. Photometric measurements show evident fading in the UV and
more subtle but significant fading in the optical. During the last HST
observation, the transient's optical/UV colours were still bluer than those of
the substantial population of compact, young, star-forming regions in the host
of AT2018cow, suggesting some continued transient contribution to the light.
However, a compact source underlying the transient would substantially modify
the resulting spectral energy distribution, depending on its contribution in
the various bands. In particular, in the optical filters, the complex, diffuse
background poses a problem for precise photometry. An underlying cluster is
expected for a supernova occurring within a young stellar environment or a
tidal-disruption event (TDE) within a dense older one. While many recent works
have focused on the supernova interpretation, we note the substantial
similarity in UV light-curve morphology between AT2018cow and several tidal
disruption events around supermassive black holes. Assuming AT2018cow arises
from a TDE-like event, we fit the late-time emission with a disc model and find
M. Further observations are necessary to
determine the late-time evolution of the transient and its immediate
environment.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Late-Time HST UV and optical observations of AT 2018cow: extracting a cow from its background
The bright, blue, rapidly evolving AT 2018cow is a well-studied peculiar extragalactic transient. Despite an abundance of multiwavelength data, there still is no consensus on the nature of the event. We present our analysis of three epochs of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations spanning the period from 713 to 1474 d post-burst, paying particular attention to uncertainties of the transient photometry introduced by the complex background in which AT 2018cow resides. Photometric measurements show evident fading in the UV and more subtle but significant fading in the optical. During the last HST observation, the transient's optical/UV colours were still bluer than those of the substantial population of compact, young, star-forming regions in the host of AT 2018cow, suggesting some continued transient contribution to the light. However, a compact source underlying the transient would substantially modify the resulting spectral energy distribution, depending on its contribution in the various bands. In particular, in the optical filters, the complex, diffuse background poses a problem for precise photometry. An underlying cluster is expected for a supernova occurring within a young stellar environment or a tidal-disruption event (TDE) within a dense older one. While many recent works have focused on the supernova interpretation, we note the substantial similarity in UV light-curve morphology between AT 2018cow and several tidal disruption events around supermassive black holes. Assuming AT 2018cow arises from a TDE-like event, we fit the late-Time emission with a disc model and find MBH = 103.2 ± 0.8 M. Further observations are necessary to determine the late-Time evolution of the transient and its immediate environment
Probing for the host galaxies of the fast X-ray transients XRTÂ 000519 and XRTÂ 110103
Over the past few years, âŒ30 extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXRTs) have been discovered, mainly in Chandra and XMM-Newton data. Their nature remains unclear, with proposed origins, including a double neutron star merger, a tidal disruption event involving an intermediate-mass black hole and a white dwarf, or a supernova shock breakout. A decisive differentiation between these three promising mechanisms for their origin requires an understanding of the FXRT energetics, environments, and/or host properties. We present optical observations obtained with the Very Large Telescope for the FXRTs XRT 000519 and XRT 110103 and Gran Telescopio Canarias observations for XRT 000519 designed to search for host galaxies of these FXRTs. In the gs, rs, and R-band images, we detect an extended source on the north-west side of the âŒ1âČâČ (68 perâcent confidence) error circle of the X-ray position of XRT 000519 with a Kron magnitude of gs = 26.29 ± 0.09 (AB magnitude). We discuss the XRT 000519 association with the probable host candidate for various possible distances, and we conclude that if XRT 000519 is associated with the host candidate a supernova shock breakout scenario is likely excluded. No host galaxy is found near XRT 110103 down to a limiting magnitude of R > 25.8
Panning for gold, but finding helium: discovery of the ultra-stripped supernova SN2019wxt from gravitational-wave follow-up observations
We present the results from multi-wavelength observations of a transient
discovered during the follow-up of S191213g, a gravitational wave (GW) event
reported by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration as a possible binary neutron star
merger in a low latency search. This search yielded SN2019wxt, a young
transient in a galaxy whose sky position (in the 80\% GW contour) and distance
(150\,Mpc) were plausibly compatible with the localisation uncertainty of
the GW event. Initially, the transient's tightly constrained age, its
relatively faint peak magnitude (\,mag) and the band
decline rate of \,mag per 5\,days appeared suggestive of a compact
binary merger. However, SN2019wxt spectroscopically resembled a type Ib
supernova, and analysis of the optical-near-infrared evolution rapidly led to
the conclusion that while it could not be associated with S191213g, it
nevertheless represented an extreme outcome of stellar evolution. By modelling
the light curve, we estimated an ejecta mass of , with
Ni comprising of this. We were broadly able to reproduce its
spectral evolution with a composition dominated by helium and oxygen, with
trace amounts of calcium. We considered various progenitors that could give
rise to the observed properties of SN2019wxt, and concluded that an
ultra-stripped origin in a binary system is the most likely explanation.
Disentangling electromagnetic counterparts to GW events from transients such as
SN2019wxt is challenging: in a bid to characterise the level of contamination,
we estimated the rate of events with properties comparable to those of
SN2019wxt and found that such event per week can occur within the
typical GW localisation area of O4 alerts out to a luminosity distance of
500\,Mpc, beyond which it would become fainter than the typical depth of
current electromagnetic follow-up campaigns.Comment: By the ENGRAVE collaboration (engrave-eso.org). 35 pages, 20 figures,
final version accepted by A&
A long-duration gamma-ray burst of dynamical origin from the nucleus of an ancient galaxy
The majority of long-duration (>2 s) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) arise from the collapse of massive stars, with a small proportion created from the merger of compact objects. Most of these systems form via standard stellar evolution pathways. However, a fraction of GRBs may result from dynamical interactions in dense environments. These channels could also contribute substantially to the samples of compact object mergers detected as gravitational wave sources. Here we report the case of GRB 191019A, a long GRB (a duration of T 90 = 64.4 ± 4.5 s), which we pinpoint close (âȘ
100 pc projected) to the nucleus of an ancient (>1 Gyr old) host galaxy at z = 0.248. The lack of evidence for star formation and deep limits on any supernova emission disfavour a massive star origin. The most likely route for progenitor formation is via dynamical interactions in the dense nucleus of the host. The progenitor, in this case, could be a compact object merger. These may form in dense nuclear clusters or originate in a gaseous disc around the supermassive black hole. Identifying, to the best of our knowledge, a first example of a dynamically produced GRB demonstrates the role that such bursts may have in probing dense environments and constraining dynamical fractions in gravitational wave populations
Host galaxy line diagnostics for the candidate tidal disruption events XMMSL1Â J111527.3+180638 and PTF09axc
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Late-Time HST UV and optical observations of at 2018cow: Extracting a cow from its background
The bright, blue, rapidly evolving AT 2018cow is a well-studied peculiar extragalactic transient. Despite an abundance of multiwavelength data, there still is no consensus on the nature of the event. We present our analysis of three epochs of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations spanning the period from 713 to 1474 d post-burst, paying particular attention to uncertainties of the transient photometry introduced by the complex background in which AT 2018cow resides. Photometric measurements show evident fading in the UV and more subtle but significant fading in the optical. During the last HST observation, the transient's optical/UV colours were still bluer than those of the substantial population of compact, young, star-forming regions in the host of AT 2018cow, suggesting some continued transient contribution to the light. However, a compact source underlying the transient would substantially modify the resulting spectral energy distribution, depending on its contribution in the various bands. In particular, in the optical filters, the complex, diffuse background poses a problem for precise photometry. An underlying cluster is expected for a supernova occurring within a young stellar environment or a tidal-disruption event (TDE) within a dense older one. While many recent works have focused on the supernova interpretation, we note the substantial similarity in UV light-curve morphology between AT 2018cow and several tidal disruption events around supermassive black holes. Assuming AT 2018cow arises from a TDE-like event, we fit the late-Time emission with a disc model and find MBH = 103.2 ± 0.8 M. Further observations are necessary to determine the late-Time evolution of the transient and its immediate environment.</p
Probing for the host galaxies of the fast X-ray transients XRT 000519 and XRT 110103
High Energy Astrophysic
XMM-Newton-discovered Fast X-ray Transients: host galaxies and limits on contemporaneous detections of optical counterparts
Extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXTs) are a class of soft (0.3â10 keV) X-ray transients lasting a few hundred seconds to several hours. Several progenitor mechanisms have been suggested to produce FXTs, including supernova shock breakouts, binary neutron star mergers, or tidal disruptions involving an intermediate-mass black hole and a white dwarf. We present detailed host studies, including spectroscopic observations of the host galaxies of seven XMM-Newton-discovered FXTs. The candidate hosts lie at redshifts 0.0928 &lt;z &lt; 0.645 implying peak X-ray luminosities of 1043 erg sâ1&lt;LX &lt; 1045 erg sâ1 and physical offsets of 1 kpc &lt; rproj &lt; 22 kpc. These observations increase the number of FXTs with a spectroscopic redshift measurement by a factor of 2, although we note that one event is re-identified as a Galactic flare star. We infer host star formation rates and stellar masses by fitting the combined spectroscopic and archival photometric data. We also report on a contemporaneous optical counterpart search to the FXTs in Pan-STARRS and ATLAS by performing forced photometry at the position of the FXTs. We do not find any counterpart in our search. Given our constraints, including peak X-ray luminosities, optical limits, and host properties, we find that XRT 110 621 is consistent with an supernova shock breakout (SN SBO) event. Spectroscopic redshifts of likely host galaxies for four events imply peak X-ray luminosities that are too high to be consistent with SN SBOs, but we are unable to discard either the binary neutron star or white dwarfâintermediate-mass black hole tidal disruption event scenarios for these FXTs
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XMM-Newton-discovered Fast X-ray Transients: host galaxies and limits on contemporaneous detections of optical counterparts
Extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXTs) are a class of soft (0.3â10 keV) X-ray transients lasting a few hundred seconds to several hours. Several progenitor mechanisms have been suggested to produce FXTs, including supernova shock breakouts, binary neutron star mergers, or tidal disruptions involving an intermediate-mass black hole and a white dwarf. We present detailed host studies, including spectroscopic observations of the host galaxies of seven XMM-Newton-discovered FXTs. The candidate hosts lie at redshifts 0.0928 <z < 0.645 implying peak X-ray luminosities of 1043 erg sâ1<LX < 1045 erg sâ1 and physical offsets of 1 kpc < rproj < 22 kpc. These observations increase the number of FXTs with a spectroscopic redshift measurement by a factor of 2, although we note that one event is re-identified as a Galactic flare star. We infer host star formation rates and stellar masses by fitting the combined spectroscopic and archival photometric data. We also report on a contemporaneous optical counterpart search to the FXTs in Pan-STARRS and ATLAS by performing forced photometry at the position of the FXTs. We do not find any counterpart in our search. Given our constraints, including peak X-ray luminosities, optical limits, and host properties, we find that XRT 110 621 is consistent with an supernova shock breakout (SN SBO) event. Spectroscopic redshifts of likely host galaxies for four events imply peak X-ray luminosities that are too high to be consistent with SN SBOs, but we are unable to discard either the binary neutron star or white dwarfâintermediate-mass black hole tidal disruption event scenarios for these FXTs. © 2023 The Author(s).Open access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]