Bright, months-long stellar outbursts announce the explosion of interaction-powered supernovae

Abstract

Interaction-powered supernovae (SNe) explode within an optically-thick circumstellar medium (CSM) that could be ejected during eruptive events. To identify and characterize such pre-explosion outbursts we produce forced-photometry light curves for 196 interacting SNe, mostly of Type IIn, detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility between early 2018 and June 2020. Extensive tests demonstrate that we only expect a few false detections among the 70,000 analyzed pre-explosion images after applying quality cuts and bias corrections. We detect precursor eruptions prior to 18 Type IIn SNe and prior to the Type Ibn SN2019uo. Precursors become brighter and more frequent in the last months before the SN and month-long outbursts brighter than magnitude -13 occur prior to 25% (5 - 69%, 95% confidence range) of all Type IIn SNe within the final three months before the explosion. With radiative energies of up to $10^{49}\text{erg}$, precursors could eject $\sim 1{\text{M}}_{\odot }$ of material. Nevertheless, SNe with detected precursors are not significantly more luminous than other SNe IIn and the characteristic narrow hydrogen lines in their spectra typically originate from earlier, undetected mass-loss events. The long precursor durations require ongoing energy injection and they could, for example, be powered by interaction or by a continuum-driven wind. Instabilities during the neon and oxygen burning phases are predicted to launch precursors in the final years to months before the explosion; however, the brightest precursor is 100 times more energetic than anticipated.

References in corpus (114)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
• The Sixteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release from the APOGEE-2 Southern Survey and Full Release of eBOSS Spectra
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Data Processing, Products, and Archive
• The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives
• Exploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palomar Transient Factory
• Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• A Modified Magnitude System that Produces Well-Behaved Magnitudes, Colors, and Errors Even for Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Measurements
• Physics of Core-Collapse Supernovae in Three Dimensions: a Sneak Preview
• Shock Breakout in Dense Mass Loss: Luminous Supernovae
• A giant outburst two years before the core-collapse of a massive star
• Evidence for an asymptotic giant branch star in the progenitor system of a type Ia supernova
• Confined Dense Circumstellar Material Surrounding a Regular Type II Supernova: The Unique Flash-Spectroscopy Event of SN 2013fs
• Wave-Driven Mass Loss in the Last Year of Stellar Evolution: Setting the Stage for the Most Luminous Core-Collapse Supernovae
• A Wolf-Rayet-like progenitor of supernova SN 2013cu from spectral observations of a wind
• PTF11kx: A Type-Ia Supernova with a Symbiotic Nova Progenitor
• The Unprecedented 2012 Outburst of SN 2009ip: A Luminous Blue Variable Becomes a True Supernova
• SN 2006jc: A Wolf-Rayet Star Exploding in a Dense He-Rich Circumstellar Medium
• Caltech Core-Collapse Project (CCCP) observations of type IIn supernovae: typical properties and implications for their progenitor stars
• On the progenitor of SN 2005gl and the nature of Type IIn supernovae
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. II. A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics
• Interacting Supernovae and Supernova Impostors. SN 2009ip, is this the end?
• Preparing for an Explosion: Hydrodynamic Instabilities and Turbulence in Presupernovae
• A panchromatic view of the restless SN2009ip reveals the explosive ejection of a massive star envelope
• Proper image subtraction - optimal transient detection, photometry and hypothesis testing
• Flash Spectroscopy: Emission Lines from the Ionized Circumstellar Material around $<10$-Day-Old Type II Supernovae
• The SED Machine: a robotic spectrograph for fast transient classification
• Precursors prior to Type IIn supernova explosions are common: precursor rates, properties, and correlations
• Type Ia Supernovae Strongly Interacting with Their Circumstellar Medium
• The Most Luminous Supernovae
• Pre-Supernova Outbursts via Wave Heating in Massive Stars I: Red Supergiants
• An outburst from a massive star 40 days before a supernova explosion
• Towards Realistic Progenitors of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Setting the Stage for Circumstellar Interaction in Core-Collapse Supernovae II: Wave-Driven Mass Loss in Supernova Progenitors
• Discovery of the Dust-Enshrouded Progenitor of SN 2008S with Spitzer
• The Status of Multi-Dimensional Core-Collapse Supernova Models
• The Missing Luminous Blue Variables and the Bistability Jump
• Supernova PTF 09uj: A possible shock breakout from a dense circumstellar wind
• What Can We Learn from the Rising Lightcurves of Radioactively-Powered Supernovae?
• Multi-wavelength Observations of the Enduring Type IIn Supernovae 2005ip and 2006jd
• Interacting Supernovae: Types IIn and Ibn
• Real-bogus classification for the Zwicky Transient Facility using deep learning
• Observational and Physical Classification of Supernovae
• The Diversity of Massive Star Outbursts I: Observations of SN 2009ip, UGC 2773 OT2009-1, and Their Progenitors
• Luminous Blue Variables and superluminous supernovae from binary mergers
• New Class of High-Energy Transients from Crashes of Supernova Ejecta with Massive Circumstellar Material Shells
• The GROWTH Marshal: A Dynamic Science Portal for Time-Domain Astronomy
• SN 2010jl: Optical to hard X-ray observations reveal an explosion embedded in a ten solar mass cocoon
• A Fully Automated Integral Field Spectrograph Pipeline for the SEDMachine: pysedm
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Alert Distribution System
• Active Galactic Nucleus Pairs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. The Frequency on ~ 5-100 kpc Scales
• Superluminous Light Curves from Supernovae Exploding in a Dense Wind
• Type Ibn Supernovae Show Photometric Homogeneity and Spectral Diversity at Maximum Light
• The porous atmosphere of eta Carinae
• Active Carbon and Oxygen Shell Burning Hydrodynamics
• Super-Eddington Stellar Winds Driven by Near-Surface Energy Deposition
• Mass-loss histories of Type IIn supernova progenitors within decades before their explosion
• Pre-Supernova Outbursts via Wave Heating in Massive Stars II: Hydrogen-poor Stars
• Detection of an outburst one year prior to the explosion of SN 2011ht
• ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae I: Properties of the 2018 Sample
• Optical to X-rays supernovae light curves following shock breakout through a thick wind
• Transient processing and analysis using $\text{AMPEL}$: Alert Management, Photometry and Evaluation of Lightcurves
• Atmospheric Scintillation in Astronomical Photometry
• Three-Dimensional Core-Collapse Supernova Simulations with Multi-Dimensional Neutrino Transport Compared to the Ray-by-Ray-plus Approximation
• UV/Optical emission from the expanding envelopes of type II supernovae
• A Diversity of Wave-driven Pre-supernova Outbursts
• Turbulent Cells in Stars: I. Fluctuations in Kinetic Energy and Luminosity
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging of Low Galactic Latitude Fields: Technical Summary and Data Release
• The Rise of the Remarkable Type IIn Supernova SN 2009ip
• Probing Cosmic-Ray Ion Acceleration with Radio-Submm and Gamma-Ray Emission from Interaction-Powered Supernovae
• Type IIn supernova light-curve properties measured from an untargeted survey sample
• The Theory of Steady State Super-Eddington Winds and its Application to Novae
• Dead or Alive? Long-term evolution of SN 2015bh (SNhunt275)
• Asymmetries in the Type IIn SN2010jl
• Evidence for Late-stage Eruptive Mass-loss in the Progenitor to SN2018gep, a Broad-lined Ic Supernova: Pre-explosion Emission and a Rapidly Rising Luminous Transient
• Light echoes reveal an unexpectedly cool Eta Carinae during its 19th-century Great Eruption
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium - IX. SN 2014av, and characterization of Type Ibn SNe
• Supernovae 2016bdu and 2005gl, and their link with SN 2009ip-like transients: another piece of the puzzle
• SN 2011hw: Helium-Rich Circumstellar Gas and the Luminous Blue Variable to Wolf-Rayet Transition in Supernova Progenitors
• Dusty Explosions from Dusty Progenitors: The Physics of SN2008S and the 2008 NGC300-OT
• The Supernova Impostor Impostor SN 1961V: Spitzer Shows That Zwicky Was Right (Again)
• The Nature of the Radiative Hydrodynamic Instabilities in Radiatively Supported Thomson Atmospheres
• SN2009ip: Constraints on the progenitor mass-loss rate
• SN 2015bh: NGC 2770's 4th supernova or a luminous blue variable on its way to a Wolf-Rayet star?
• Interacting supernovae and supernova impostors. LSQ13zm: an outburst heralds the death of a massive star
• The bumpy light curve of supernova iPTF13z
• Wave-driven stellar expansion and binary interaction in pre-supernova outbursts
• PS1-12sk is a Peculiar Supernova From a He-rich Progenitor System in a Brightest Cluster Galaxy Environment
• catsHTM - A tool for fast accessing and cross-matching large astronomical catalogs
• Type Ibn Supernovae May not all Come from Massive Stars
• PTF 13efv - An outburst 500 days prior to the SNHunt 275 explosion and its radiative efficiency
• Hydrodynamical simulations and similarity relations for eruptive mass loss from massive stars
• Constraints on Type IIn Supernova Progenitor Outbursts from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search
• Flash ionization signatures in the type Ibn supernova SN 2019uo
• Mass loss of massive stars near the Eddington luminosity by core neutrino emission shortly before their explosion
• Search for precursor eruptions among Type IIb supernovae
• The luminous and rapidly evolving SN 2018bcc: Clues toward the origin of Type Ibn SNe from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• X-rays, gamma-rays and neutrinos from collisoinless shocks in supernova wind breakouts
• Circumstellar and explosion properties of Type Ibn supernovae
• SN 2009ip: Constraining the latest explosion properties by its late-phase light curve
• Supernova PTF12glz: a possible shock breakout driven through an aspherical wind
• A new and unusual LBV-like outburst from a Wolf-Rayet star in the outskirts of M33
• The Spectral Temperature of Optically Thick Outflows with Application to Light Echo Spectra from $\eta$~Carinae's Giant Eruption
• A code for robust astrometric solution of astronomical images
• SN 2020bqj: a Type Ibn supernova with a long lasting peak plateau
• SN2002bu -- Another SN2008S-like Transient
• Signatures of an eruptive phase before the explosion of the peculiar core-collapse SN 2013gc
• Pre-supernova outbursts of massive stars in the presence of a neutron star companion
• Early Ultra-Violet observations of type IIn supernovae constrain the asphericity of their circumstellar material

Cited by in corpus (75)

• A large fraction of hydrogen-rich supernova progenitors experience elevated mass loss shortly prior to explosion
• Final Moments I: Precursor Emission, Envelope Inflation, and Enhanced Mass loss Preceding the Luminous Type II Supernova 2020tlf
• A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula
• The prevalence and influence of circumstellar material around hydrogen-rich supernova progenitors
• From Discovery to the First Month of the Type II Supernova 2023ixf: High and Variable Mass Loss in the Final Year before Explosion
• The Type Icn SN 2021csp: Implications for the Origins of the Fastest Supernovae and the Fates of Wolf-Rayet Stars
• Early hard X-rays from the nearby core-collapse supernova SN2023ixf
• Properties of Type Ibn Supernovae: Implications for the Progenitor Evolution and the Origin of a Population of Rapid Transients
• Circumstellar Interaction Powers the Light Curves of Luminous Rapidly Evolving Optical Transients
• A radio-detected Type Ia supernova with helium-rich circumstellar material
• The role of jets in exploding supernovae and in shaping their remnants
• Seven years of coordinated Chandra-NuSTAR observations of SN2014C unfold the extreme mass-loss history of its stellar progenitor
• A Systematic Study of Ia-CSM Supernovae from the ZTF Bright Transient Survey
• Supernova Precursor Emission and the Origin of Pre-Explosion Stellar Mass-Loss
• Using spectral modeling to break light-curve degeneracies of type II supernovae interacting with circumstellar material
• Three Core-Collapse Supernovae with Nebular Hydrogen Emission
• A low-energy explosion yields the underluminous Type IIP SN 2020cxd
• The final months of massive star evolution from the circumstellar environment around SN Ic 2020oi
• Constraining High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Supernovae with IceCube
• Stellar winds and metal enrichment from fast-rotating Population III stars
• The broad-lined Type-Ic supernova SN 2022xxf with extraordinary two-humped light curves
• A systematic reclassification of type IIn supernovae
• SN 2022ann: A type Icn supernova from a dwarf galaxy that reveals helium in its circumstellar environment
• Mass-transferring binary stars as progenitors of interacting hydrogen-free supernovae
• Precursors of Supernovae from Mass Eruption: Prospects for Early Warning of Nearby Core-collapse Supernovae
• Monotonicity of the cores of massive stars
• SN 2020bqj: a Type Ibn supernova with a long lasting peak plateau
• SN2020qlb: A hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova with well-characterized light curve undulations
• Radiative Acceleration of Dense Circumstellar Material in Interacting Supernovae
• Radio Analysis of SN 2004C Reveals an Unusual CSM Density Profile as a Harbinger of Core Collapse
• An H-alpha survey of the host environments of 77 type IIn supernovae within z<0.02
• 3D Hydrodynamics of Pre-supernova Outbursts in Convective Red Supergiant Envelopes
• Gap Transients Interacting with Circumstellar Medium
• The Large Array Survey Telescope -- Science Goals
• Multiple Peaks and a Long Precursor in the Type IIn Supernova 2021qqp: An Energetic Explosion in a Complex Circumstellar Environment
• Spectroscopic observations of progenitor activity 100 days before a Type Ibn supernova
• A pre-explosion effervescent zone for the circumstellar material in SN 2023ixf
• SN 2019zrk, a bright SN 2009ip analog with a precursor
• SN 2020bio: A Double-peaked, H-poor Type IIb Supernova with Evidence of Circumstellar Interaction
• Searching for precursor activity of Type IIn Supernovae
• Unveiling the Nature of SN 2011fh: a Young and Massive Star Gives Rise to a Luminous SN 2009ip-like Event
• Sample of hydrogen-rich superluminous supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• SN 2023ixf -- an average-energy explosion with circumstellar medium and a precursor
• Probing pre-supernova mass loss in double-peaked Type Ibc supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Towards an understanding of long gamma-ray burst environments through circumstellar medium population synthesis predictions
• AT2018lqh and the nature of the emerging population of day-scale duration optical transients
• Inferring CSM Properties of Type II SNe Using a Magnitude-Limited ZTF Sample
• Supernova search with active learning in ZTF DR3
• Evolution of A Peculiar Type Ibn Supernova SN 2019wep
• SN 2020pvb: a Type IIn-P supernova with a precursor outburst
• Type IIP supernova SN 2016X in radio frequencies
• Searching for late-time interaction signatures in Type Ia supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium. XI. Diverse evolution of five Ibn SNe 2020nxt, 2020taz, 2021bbv, 2023utc and 2024aej
• Multiple giant eruptions and X-ray emission in the recoiling AGN/LBV candidate SDSS1133
• Revisiting GRB 060218: new insights into low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts from a revised shock breakout model
• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium $-$ X. Flash spectral features in the Type Ibn SN 2019cj and observations of SN 2018jmt
• The bright long-lived Type II SN 2021irp powered by aspherical circumstellar material interaction (I): Revealing the energy source with photometry and spectroscopy
• A long-lasting eruption heralds SN 2023ldh, a clone of SN 2009ip
• Eruptive mass loss less than a year before the explosion of superluminous supernovae: I. The cases of SN 2020xga and SN 2022xgc
• Pre-supernova outbursts by core magnetic activity
• On the nature of slowly rising interaction-powered supernovae
• Luminous, rapidly declining supernovae as stripped transitional objects in low metallicity environments: the case of SN 2022lxg
• Pre-explosion, explosion, and post-explosion jets in supernova SN 2019zrk
• The demographics of core-collapse supernovae. The role of binary evolution and CSM interaction
• The fast rise of the unusual Type IIL/IIb SN 2018ivc
• ZTF-observed late-time signals of pre-ZTF transients
• Hydrodynamic Modelling of Early Peaks in Type Ibc Supernovae with Circumstellar Interaction
• SN 2016iog: A fast declining Type II-L supernova with an ultra-faint tail, persistently interacting with circumstellar material
• A real-time search for Type Ia Supernovae with late-time CSM interaction in ZTF
• Modeling the light curve of Type IIn-P SN 2005cl with red supergiant progenitors featuring pre-SN ourbursts
• Rare events of a peculiar thermonuclear supernova that precedes a core collapse supernova
• Can circumstellar interaction explain the strange light curve features of Type Ib/c supernovae?
• A global look into the world of interacting supernovae
• Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Reveals That SN 2015bh Is Much Fainter than Its Progenitor
• SN 2024hpj: A perspective on SN 2009ip-like events