Multi-wavelength observations of the Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2023fhn

Abstract

Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs) are a class of extragalactic transients notable for their rapid rise and fade times, blue colour and accompanying luminous X-ray and radio emission. Only a handful have been studied in detail since the prototypical example AT2018cow. Their origins are currently unknown, but ongoing observations of previous and new events are placing ever stronger constraints on their progenitors. We aim to put further constraints on the LFBOT AT2023fhn, and LFBOTs as a class, using information from the multi-wavelength transient light-curve, its host galaxy and local environment. Our primary results are obtained by fitting galaxy models to the spectral energy distribution of AT2023fhn's host and local environment, and by modelling the radio light-curve of AT2023fhn as due to synchrotron self-absorbed emission from an expanding blast-wave in the circumstellar medium. We find that neither the host galaxy nor circumstellar environment of AT2023fhn are unusual compared with previous LFBOTs, but that AT2023fhn has a much lower X-ray to ultraviolet luminosity ratio than previous events. We argue that the variety in ultraviolet-optical to X-ray luminosity ratios among LFBOTs is likely due to viewing angle differences, and that the diffuse, yet young local environment of AT2023fhn - combined with a similar circumstellar medium to previous events - favours a progenitor system containing a massive star with strong winds. Plausible progenitor models in this interpretation therefore include black hole/Wolf-Rayet mergers or failed supernovae.

Accepted for publication in A&A. 15 pages, 12 figures, 8 tables

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