paper

Two New Calcium-Rich Gap Transients in Group and Cluster Environments

arXiv:1612.00454 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/60

Abstract

We present the Palomar Transient Factory discoveries and the photometric and spectroscopic observations of PTF11kmb and PTF12bho. We show that both transients have properties consistent with the class of calcium-rich gap transients, specifically lower peak luminosities and rapid evolution compared to ordinary supernovae, and a nebular spectrum dominated by [Ca II] emission. A striking feature of both transients is their host environments: PTF12bho is an intra-cluster transient in the Coma Cluster, while PTF11kmb is located in a loose galaxy group, at a physical offset ~150 kpc from the most likely host galaxy. Deep Subaru imaging of PTF12bho rules out an underlying host system to a limit of mag, while Hubble Space Telescope imaging of PTF11kmb reveals a marginal counterpart that, if real, could be either a background galaxy or a globular cluster. We show that the offset distribution of Ca-rich gap transients is significantly more extreme than that seen for Type Ia supernovae or even short-hard gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). Thus, if the offsets are caused by a kick, they require larger kick velocities and/or longer merger times than sGRBs. We also show that almost all Ca-rich gap transients found to date are in group and cluster environments with elliptical host galaxies, indicating a very old progenitor population; the remote locations could partially be explained by these environments having the largest fraction of stars in the intra-group/intra-cluster light following galaxy-galaxy interactions.

Matches published version. Minor changes to previous version following referee report; conclusions unchanged

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