VERITAS and Fermi-LAT constraints on the Gamma-ray Emission from Superluminous Supernovae SN2015bn and SN2017egm

Abstract

Superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are a rare class of stellar explosions with luminosities ~10-100 times greater than ordinary core-collapse supernovae. One popular model to explain the enhanced optical output of hydrogen-poor (Type I) SLSNe invokes energy injection from a rapidly spinning magnetar. A prediction in this case is that high-energy gamma rays, generated in the wind nebula of the magnetar, could escape through the expanding supernova ejecta at late times (months or more after optical peak). This paper presents a search for gamma-ray emission in the broad energy band from 100 MeV to 30 TeV from two Type I SLSNe, SN2015bn, and SN2017egm, using observations from Fermi-LAT and VERITAS. Although no gamma-ray emission was detected from either source, the derived upper limits approach the putative magnetar's spin-down luminosity. Prospects are explored for detecting very-high-energy (VHE; 100 GeV - 100 TeV) emission from SLSNe-I with existing and planned facilities such as VERITAS and CTA.

20 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (17)

• Circumstellar Emission from Type Ib and Ic Supernovae
• The First VERITAS Telescope
• The magnetar model for Type I superluminous supernovae I: Bayesian analysis of the full multicolour light curve sample with MOSFiT
• Hydrogen-Poor Superluminous Supernovae from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey
• Superluminous supernova 2015bn in the nebular phase: evidence for the engine-powered explosion of a stripped massive star
• Superluminous Supernovae Powered by Magnetars: Late-time Light Curves and Hard Emission Leakage
• GammaLib and ctools: A software framework for the analysis of astronomical gamma-ray data
• Gamma-Ray and Hard X-Ray Emission from Pulsar-Aided Supernovae as a Probe of Particle Acceleration in Embryonic Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Fast evolving pair-instability supernova models: evolution, explosion, light curves
• AMEGO: Exploring the Extreme Multimessenger Universe
• Gamma-ray Thermalization and Leakage from Millisecond Magnetar Nebulae: Towards a Self-Consistent Model for Superluminous Supernovae
• The superluminous supernova SN 2017egm in the nearby galaxy NGC 3191: a metal-rich environment can support a typical SLSN evolution
• An extremely energetic supernova from a very massive star in a dense medium
• A serendipitous discovery of GeV gamma-ray emission from supernova 2004dj in a survey of nearby star-forming galaxies with Fermi-LAT
• Upper Limits on Very-High-Energy Gamma-ray Emission from Core-Collapse Supernovae Observed with H.E.S.S
• The Cherenkov Telescope Array On-Site integral sensitivity: observing the Crab
• The throughput calibration of the VERITAS telescopes

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A Very-High-Energy Gamma-Ray View of the Transient Sky
• Gamma-ray signature of superluminous supernovae: Fermi-LAT GeV detection of SN 2017egm and evidence of a central engine
• Evidence for GeV emission of the superluminous supernova SN 2017egm
• Constraining the TeV gamma-ray emission of SN 2024bch, a possible type IIn-L from a red supergiant progenitor. Multiwavelength observations and analysis of the progenitor