Multiwavelength Modeling of the Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient AT2024wpp
Liverpool John Moores University（利物浦约翰摩尔斯大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Tohoku University（东北大学）；Northwestern University（西北大学）
Conor M. B. Omand, Nikhil Sarin, Gavin P. Lamb, Daniel A. Perley, Andrew Mummery, Hamid Hamidani, Steve Schulze, Emma R. Beasor, Aleksandra Bochenek, Helena-Mar… 展开作者
Conor M. B. Omand, Nikhil Sarin, Gavin P. Lamb, Daniel A. Perley, Andrew Mummery, Hamid Hamidani, Steve Schulze, Emma R. Beasor, Aleksandra Bochenek, Helena-Margaret S. Grabham, Sorcha R. Kennelly, Nguyen M. Khang, Shiho Kobayashi, Genevieve Schroeder, William N. Stone, Cairns Turnbull, Jacob Wise
Luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) are a growing class of enigmatic energetic transients. They show fast rises and declines, high temperatures throughout their evolution, and non-thermal emission in radio and X-rays. Their power source is currently unknown, but proposed models include engine-driven supernovae, interaction-powered supernovae, shock cooling emission, intermediate mass black hole tidal disruption events (IMBH TDEs), and Wolf-Rayet/black hole mergers, among others. AT2024wpp is the most optically luminous LFBOT to date and has been observed extensively at multiple wavelengths, including radio, optical, UV, and X-rays. We take models from multiple scenarios and fit them to the AT2024wpp optical, radio, and X-ray light curves to determine which of these scenarios can best describe all aspects of the data. We show that none of the multiwavelength light curve models can reasonably explain the data, and that other physical arguments disfavour models with homologously expanding ejecta. We discuss how a stellar mass/IMBH TDE of a low mass star can be tested with late-time observations, and what other scenarios could possibly explain the broadband data.
We model the multiwavelength properties of binaries accreting at super-critical rates with the aim to better understand the observational properties of Ultra-luminous X-ray Sources (ULXs). We calculate an extended grid of binary systems which evolve through Roche Lobe Overflow and undergo case A mass transfer from massive donors (up to 25 Msol) onto massive Black Holes (BH) (up to 100 Msol). Angular momentum loss with the ejection of mass through an outflow is incorporated. We apply our super-Eddington accretion model to these systems, computing their evolutionary tracks on the color-magnitude…
Multiwavelength Evidence for Two New Candidate Transitional Millisecond Pulsars in the Sub-luminous Disk State: 4FGL J0639.1--8009 and 4FGL J1824.2+1231
This work is intended to provide an introduction to multiwavelength observations of low-mass X-ray binaries and the techniques used to analyze and interpret their data. The focus will primarily be on ultraviolet, optical, and infrared observations and their connections to other wavelengths. The topics covered include: outbursts of soft X-ray transients, accretion disk spectral energy distributions, orbital lightcurves in luminous and quiescent states, super-orbital and sub-orbital variability, line spectra, system parameter determinations, and echo-mapping and other rapid correlated variabilit…
Newborn black holes in collapsing massive stars can be accompanied by a fallback disk. The accretion rate is typically super-Eddington and strong disk outflows are expected. Such outflows could be directly observed in some failed explosions of compact (blue supergiants or Wolf-Rayet stars) progenitors, and may be more common than long-duration gamma-ray bursts. Using an analytical model, we show that the fallback disk outflows produce blue UV-optical transients with a peak bolometric luminosity of ~10^(42-43) erg s^-1 (peak R-band absolute AB magnitudes of -16 to -18) and an emission duration …
We report the discovery of a new low-mass X-ray binary near the center of the unassociated Fermi GeV gamma-ray source 4FGL J0540.0-7552. The source shows the persistent presence of an optical accretion disk and exhibits extreme X-ray and optical variability. It also has an X-ray spectrum well-fit by a hard power law with a Gamma = 1.8 and a high ratio of X-ray to gamma-ray flux. Together, these properties are consistent with the classification of the binary as a transitional millisecond pulsar (tMSP) in the sub-luminous disk state. Uniquely among the candidate tMSPs, 4FGL J0540.0-7552 shows co…
Classical supersoft X-ray sources (SSSs) are understood as close binary systems in which a massive white dwarf (WD) accretes from its companion at rates sustaining steady hydrogen burning on its surface generating bolometric luminosities of $10^{36}-2\times10^{38}$ erg/s. Here, we perform for the first time the global supersoft X-rays to near-infrared (NIR) spectral energy distribution (SED) for the brightest SSSs in LMC and SMC. We test a model in which the ultraviolet--NIR is dominated by the emission from a compact (unresolved) circumstellar nebula represented by the ionized gas out-flowing…
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) emissio…
We present deep X-ray and radio observations of the Fast Blue Optical Transient (FBOT) AT2020xnd/ZTF20acigmel at $z=0.2433$ from $13$d to $269$d after explosion. AT2020xnd belongs to the category of optically luminous FBOTs with similarities to the archetypal event AT2018cow. AT2020xnd shows luminous radio emission reaching $L_ν\approx8\times10^{29}$ergs$^{-1}$Hz$^{-1}$ at 20GHz and $75$d post explosion, accompanied by luminous and rapidly fading soft X-ray emission peaking at $L_{X}\approx6\times10^{42}$ergs$^{-1}$. Interpreting the radio emission in the context of synchrotron radiation from …
The origin of the most luminous subclass of the fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) is still unknown. We present an X-ray spectral analysis of AT2018cow-the LFBOT archetype-using NuSTAR, Swift, and XMM-Newton data. The source spectrum can be explained by the presence of a slim accretion disk, and we find that the mass accretion rate decreases to sub-Eddington levels >~ 200 days after the source's discovery. Applying our slim disk model to data obtained at multiple observational epochs, we constrain the mass of the central compact object in AT2018cow to be log(M_BH/Msun)=2.4+0.6/-0.1 at the 6…
The recent discovery of a faint gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the gravitational wave (GW) event GW 170817 revealed the existence of a population of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B was an analogue of GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB 150101B was a faint short duration GRB characterized by a bright optical counterpa…
We present multiwavelength observations of the ultraluminous blazar-type radio loud quasar PKS 0528+134 in quiescence during the period July to December 2009. Significant flux variability on a time scale of several hours was found in the optical regime, accompanied by a weak trend of spectral softening with increasing flux. We suggest that this might be the signature of a contribution from the accretion disk at the blue end of the optical spectrum. The optical flux is weakly polarized with rapid variations of the degree and direction of polarization, while the polarization of the 43 GHz radio …
We present multiwavelength analyses of an active optical transient AT2021fxu which shows the appearance of previously absent broad emission lines in a recent optical spectrum, suggesting a Changing-look (CL) Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). During the spectral transition, the brightness in the individual photometric bands increased up to $\approx$0.6 in the optical bands and up to $\approx$1.1 magnitudes in the UV bands. The brightening was accompanied by a blueward shift of the optical spectrum. AT2021fxu shows high X-ray (0.3-10 keV) flux variability before and after the outburst, with the ave…
We present a measurement of the X-ray spectrum of the luminous X-ray binary in I Zw 18, the blue compact dwarf galaxy with the lowest known metallicity. We find the highest flux yet observed, corresponding to an intrinsic luminosity near 1E40 erg/s establishing it as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). The energy spectrum is dominated by disk emission with a weak or absent Compton component and there is no significant timing noise; both are indicative of the thermal state of stellar-mass black hole X-ray binaries and inconsistent with the Compton-dominated state typical of most ULX spectra. A…
Metal-poor massive stars may typically end up their lives as blue supergiants (BSGs). Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from such progenitors could have ultra-long duration of relativistic jets. For example Population III (Pop III) GRBs at z ~ 10-20 might be observable as X-ray rich events with a typical duration of T_90 ~ 10^4(1+z) sec. Recent GRB111209A at z = 0.677 has an ultra long duration of T_90 ~ 2.5*10^4 sec so that it have been suggested that the progenitor might be a metal-poor BSGs in the local universe. Here, we suggest luminous UV/optical/infrared emissions associated with such a new class…
Compact Objects Merging with Stars as an Origin of Ultra-Long Gamma-Ray Bursts and Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients
The NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions（美国国家科学基金会人工智能基础相互作用研究所）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, Louisiana State University（路易斯安那州立大学物理与天文系）；Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute（平顿研究所计算天体物理中心）；Department of Physics and Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学物理系与哥伦比亚天体物理实验室）；Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University（西北大学跨学科天体物理探索研究中心(CIERA)及物理与天文系）；Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics（马克斯·普朗克天体物理研究所）；Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室非线性研究中央）；Department of Physics, The George Washington University（乔治华盛顿大学物理系）
If Type Ia supernovae (SNe~Ia) result from a white dwarf being ignited by Roche lobe overflow from a nondegenerate companion, then as the supernova explosion runs into the companion star its ejecta will be shocked, causing an early blue excess in the lightcurve. A handful of these excesses have been found in single-object studies, but inferences about the population of SNe~Ia as a whole have been limited because of the rarity of multiwavelength followup within days of explosion. Here we present a three-year investigation yielding an unbiased sample of nine nearby ($z<0.01$) SNe~Ia with exempla…
Progenitor models for the "luminous" subclass of Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs; prototype: AT2018cow) are challenged to simultaneously explain all of their observed properties: fast optical rise times < days; peak luminosities >1e44 erg/s; low yields <0.1 Msun of 56Ni; aspherical ejecta with a wide velocity range (<3000 km/s to > 0.1-0.5 c with increasing polar latitude); presence of hydrogen-depleted-but-not-free dense circumstellar material (CSM) on radial scales from ~1e14 cm to ~3e16 cm; embedded variable source of non-thermal X-ray/gamma-rays, suggestive of a compact object. We sho…
Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are suprisingly isolated from the massive O-type stars that are their putative progenitors in single-star evolution, implicating LBVs as binary evolution products. Aadland et al. (A19) found that LBVs are, however, only marginally more dispersed than a photometrically selected sample of bright blue stars (BBS) in the LMC, leading them to suggest that LBV environments may not exclude a single-star origin. In both comparisons, LBVs have the same median separation, confirming that any incompleteness in the O-star sample does not fabricate LBV isolation. Instead, the…
Aims: The X-ray emission of massive stars has been studied when these objects are in their main-sequence phase, as well as in their Wolf-Rayet phase. However, the X-ray properties of the transitional Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) phase remain unknown. Methods: Using a dedicated but limited XMM survey as well as archival XMM and Chandra observations, we performed the first X-ray survey of LBVs: about half of the known LBVs or candidate LBVs are studied. Results: Apart from the well known X-ray sources eta Car and Cyg OB2 #12, four additional LBVs are detected in this survey, though some doubt re…
We searched optical/UV/IR counterparts of seven supersoft X-ray sources (SSS) in M31 in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) "Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury" (PHAT) archival images and photometric catalog. Three of the SSS were transient, the other four are persistent sources. The PHAT offers the opportunity to identify SSS hosting very massive white dwarfs that may explode as type Ia supernovae in single degenerate binaries, with magnitudes and color indexes typical of symbiotic stars, high mass close binaries, or systems with optically luminous accretion disks. We find evidence that the …
To determine the epoch of reionization precisely and to reveal the property of inhomogeneous reionization are some of the most important topics of modern cosmology. Existing methods to investigate reionization which use cosmic microwave background, Ly$α$ emitters, quasars, or gamma ray bursts, have difficulties in terms of accuracy or event rate. We propose that recently discovered fast luminous blue transients (FLBTs) have a potential as a novel probe of reionization. We study the detectability of FLBTs at the epoch of reionization with upcoming WFIRST Wide-Field Instruments (WFI), using a st…
Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients in the 2040s
Radboud University（拉德堡德大学）；ESA-ESTEC（欧洲空间局欧洲空间研究与技术中心）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University of Warwick（华威大学）；University of Bath（巴斯大学）；Liverpool John Moores University（利物浦约翰摩尔斯大学）
Stellar Tidal Disruptions by Newborn Neutron Stars or Black Holes: A Mechanism for Hydrogen-poor (Super)luminous Supernovae and Fast Blue Optical Transients
Multiwavelength Analysis of Six Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients
Cornell University（康奈尔大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Northwestern University（西北大学）；Liverpool John Moores University（利物浦约翰摩尔大学）；Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)（毫米波射电天文研究所）；University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校）
We present new HST imaging photometry for the site of the Type IIn supernova (SN) 2009ip taken almost a decade after explosion. The optical source has continued to fade steadily since the SN-like event in 2012. In the F606W filter, which was also used to detect its luminous blue variable (LBV) progenitor 13~yr before the SN, the source at the position of SN2009ip is now 1.2mag fainter than that quiescent progenitor. It is 6-7mag fainter than the pre-SN outbursts in 2009--2011. This definitively rules out a prediction that the source would return to its previous state after surviving the 2012 e…
Stars more massive than about 8 Msun end their lives as a Supernova (SN), an event of fundamental importance Universe-wide. Theoretically, these stars have been expected to be either at the red supergiant, blue supergiant, or Wolf-Rayet stage before the explosion. We performed coupled stellar evolution and atmospheric modeling of stars with initial masses between 20 Msun and 120 Msun. We found that the 20 Msun and 25 Msun rotating models, before exploding as SN, have spectra that do not resemble any of the aforementioned classes of massive stars. Rather, they have remarkable similarities with …
Type-Iax supernovae (SN Iax) are stellar explosions that are spectroscopically similar to some type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia) at maximum light, except with lower ejecta velocities. They are also distinguished by lower luminosities. At late times, their spectroscopic properties diverge from other SN, but their composition (dominated by iron-group and intermediate-mass elements) suggests a physical connection to normal SN Ia. These are not rare; SN Iax occur at a rate between 5 and 30% of the normal SN Ia rate. The leading models for SN Iax are thermonuclear explosions of accreting carbon-oxygen whi…
We investigate the effects of mass loss during the main-sequence (MS) and post-MS phases of massive star evolution on black hole (BH) birth masses. We compute solar metallicity Geneva stellar evolution models of an 85 $M_{\odot}$ star with mass-loss rate ($\dot{M}$) prescriptions for MS and post-MS phases and analyze under which conditions such models could lead to very massive BHs. Based on the observational constraints for $\dot{M}$ of luminous stars, we discuss two possible scenarios that could produce massive BHs at high metallicity. First, if a massive BH progenitor evolves from the obser…
Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are hot, very luminous massive stars displaying large quasi-periodic variations in brightness, radius,and photospheric temperature, on timescales of years to decades. The physical origin of this variability, called S Doradus cycle after its prototype, has remained elusive. Here, we study the feedback of stellar wind mass-loss on the envelope structure in stars near the Eddington limit. We perform a time-dependent hydrodynamic stellar evolutionary calculation, applying a stellar wind mass-loss prescription with a temperature-dependence inspired by the predicted sy…
Mounting evidence suggests that Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs) are powered by a compact object, launching an asymmetric and fast outflow responsible for the radiation observed in the ultraviolet, optical, infrared, radio, and X-ray bands. Proposed scenarios aiming to explain the electromagnetic emission include an inflated cocoon, surrounding a jet choked in the extended stellar envelope. In alternative, the observed radiation may arise from the disk formed by the delayed merger of a black hole with a Wolf-Rayet star. We explore the neutrino production in these scenarios, i.e. …
We predict quantitative mass-loss rates and terminal wind velocities for early-type supergiants and luminous blue variables (LBVs) using a dynamical version of the Monte Carlo radiative transfer method. First, the observed drop in terminal wind velocity around spectral type B1 is confirmed by the Monte Carlo method -- at the correct effective temperature of about 21 000 K. This drop in wind velocity is much steeper than would be expected from the drop in escape speed for cooler stars. The results may be particularly relevant for slow winds inferred for some High-Mass X-ray binaries. Second, th…
We present new light curves and spectra for a number of extragalactic optical transients or "SN impostors" related to giant eruptions of LBVs, and we provide a comparative discussion of LBV-like giant eruptions known to date. New data include photometry and spectroscopy of SNe1999bw, 2000ch, 2001ac, 2002bu, 2006bv, and 2010dn. SN2010dn resembles SN2008S and NGC 300-OT, whereas SN2002bu shows spectral evolution from a normal LBV at early times to a twin of these cooler transients at late times. SN2008S, NGC300-OT, and SN2010dn appear to be special cases of a broader eruptive phenomenon where th…
