Dust Echoes from Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients

Abstract

Luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) such as AT2018cow form a rare class of engine-powered explosions of uncertain origin. A hallmark feature of these events is radio/millimeter synchrotron emission powered by the interaction of fast (v > 0.1 c) ejecta and dense circumstellar material (CSM) extending to large radii > 1e16 cm surrounding the progenitor. Assuming this CSM to be an outflow from the progenitor, we show that dust grains up to ~1 micron in size can form in the outflow in the years before the explosion. This dusty CSM would attenuate the transient's ultraviolet (UV) emission prior to peak light, before being destroyed by the rising luminosity, reddening the pre-maximum colors (consistent with the pre-maximum red-to-blue color evolution of the LFBOT candidate MUSSES2020J). Re-radiation by the dust before being destroyed generates an near-infrared (NIR) "echo" of luminosity ~1e41-1e42 erg/s lasting weeks, which is detectable over the transient's rapidly fading blue continuum. We show that this dust echo is compatible with the previously unexplained NIR excess observed in AT2018cow. The gradual decay of the early NIR light curve can result from CSM which is concentrated in wide-angle outflow or torus, consistent with the highly aspherical geometry of AT2018cow's ejecta. Pre-maximum optical/UV and NIR follow-up of LFBOTs provide an new probe of their CSM environments and place additional constraints on their progenitors.

arXiv comment8 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Late-time Hubble Space Telescope Observations of AT 2018cow. II. Evolution of a UV bright Underlying Source 2--4 Yr Post-discovery
• Multi-wavelength observations of the Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2023fhn
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• Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients as "Failed" Gravitational-wave Sources: Helium Core$-$Black Hole Mergers Following Delayed Dynamical Instability
• The spectra of a radiative reprocessing outflow model for fast blue optical transients