DES15E2mlf: A spectroscopically confirmed superluminous supernova that exploded 3.5 Gyr after the big bang

Y. C. Pan, R. J. Foley, M. Smith, L. Galbany, C. B. D'Andrea, S. Gonzalez-Gaitan, M. J. Jarvis, R. Kessler, E. Kovacs, C. Lidman, R. C. Nichol, A. Papadopoulos, M. Sako, M. Sullivan, T. M.C. Abbott, F. B. Abdalla, J. Annis, K. Bechtol, A. Benoit-Levy, D. BrooksE. Buckley-Geer, D. L. Burke, A. Carnero Rosell, M. Carrasco Kind, J. Carretero, F. J. Castander, C. E. Cunha, L. N. Da Costa, S. Desai, H. T. Diehl, P. Doel, T. F. Eifler, D. A. Finley, B. Flaugher, J. Frieman, J. Garcia-Bellido, D. A. Goldstein, D. Gruen, R. A. Gruendl, J. Gschwend, G. Gutierrez, D. J. James, A. G. Kim, E. Krause, K. Kuehn, N. Kuropatkin, O. Lahav, M. Lima, M. A.G. Maia, M. March, J. L. Marshall, P. Martini, R. Miquel, P. Nugent, A. A. Plazas, A. K. Romer, E. Sanchez, V. Scarpine, M. Schubnell, I. Sevilla-Noarbe, R. C. Smith, F. Sobreira, E. Suchyta, M. E.C. Swanson, R. C. Thomas, A. R. Walker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present the Dark Energy Survey (DES) discovery of DES15E2mlf, the most distant superluminous supernova (SLSN) spectroscopically confirmed to date. The light curves and Gemini spectroscopy of DES15E2mlf indicate that it is a Type I superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) at z = 1.861 (a lookback time of ~10 Gyr) and peaking at MAB = -22.3 ± 0.1 mag. Given the high redshift, our data probe the rest-frame ultraviolet (1400-3500 Å) properties of the SN, finding velocity of the C III feature changes by ~5600 km s-1 over 14 d around maximum light. We find the host galaxy of DES15E2mlf has a stellar mass of 3.5+3.6-2.4 × 109 M, which is more massive than the typical SLSN-I host galaxy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4241-4250
Number of pages10
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume470
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2017

Funding

1The Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF) is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The DES data management system is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number AST-1138766. The DES participants from Spanish institutions are partially supported by MINECO under grants AYA2012-39559, ESP2013-48274, FPA2013-47986 and Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2012-0234. Research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) including ERC grant agreements 240672, 291329 and 306478. Funding for the DES Projects has been provided by the US Department of Energy, the US National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Education of Spain, the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at the Ohio State University, the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Fundac¸ão Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Conselho Na-cional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico and the Min-istério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovac¸ão, the Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft and the Collaborating Institutions in the Dark Energy Survey. Y-CP and RJF are supported, in part, by NSF grant AST-1518052. Y-CP thanks T-W Chen for helpful discussions and comments. RJF gratefully acknowledges support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. LG was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation under Grant AST-1311862. MJJ acknowledges support from the UK STFC [ST/N000919/1]. MS acknowledges support from EU/FP7-ERC grant number 615929.

FundersFunder number
Centro de Excelencia Severo OchoaSEV-2012-0234
Collaborating Institutions in the Dark Energy Survey
Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft
FP7/2007
Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago
Min-istério da Ciência
Ministry of Science and Education of Spain
Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University
National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
National Optical Astronomy Observatories
US Department of Energy
US National Science FoundationAST-1311862
National Science FoundationAST-1138766, AST-1518052
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Seventh Framework Programme1311862, 1138766, 240672, 615929, 306478, 1518052, 291329
Higher Education Funding Council for England
Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Ohio State University
Engineering Research Centers
Science and Technology Facilities CouncilST/N000919/1
European Research Council
Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadFPA2013-47986, AYA2012-39559, ESP2013-48274
Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos
Seventh Framework Programme
Fundação Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

    Keywords

    • Supernovae: general
    • Supernovae: individual: DES15E2mlf

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