English

A Generalized Semi-Analytic Model for Magnetar-Driven Supernovae

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2023-11-28 v2

Abstract

Several types of energetic supernovae, such as superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) and broad-line Ic supernovae (Ic-BL SNe), could be powered by the spin-down of a rapidly rotating magnetar. Currently, most models used to infer the parameters for potential magnetar-driven supernovae make several unsuitable assumptions that likely bias the estimated parameters. In this work, we present a new model for magnetar-driven supernovae that relaxes several of these assumptions and an inference workflow that enables accurate estimation of parameters from lightcurves of magnetar-driven supernovae. In particular, in this model, we include the dynamical evolution of the ejecta, coupling it to the energy injected by the magnetar itself while also allowing for non-dipole spin down. We show that the model can reproduce SLSN and Ic-BL SN light curves consistent with the parameter space from computationally expensive numerical models. We also show the results of parameter inference on four well-known example supernovae, demonstrating the model's effectiveness at capturing the considerable diversity in magnetar-driven supernova lightcurves. The model fits each light curve well and recovers parameters broadly consistent with previous works. This model will allow us to explore the full diversity of magnetar-driven supernovae under one theoretical framework, more accurately characterize these supernovae from only photometric data, and make more accurate predictions of future multiwavelength emission to test the magnetar-driven scenario better.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.12997,
  title  = {A Generalized Semi-Analytic Model for Magnetar-Driven Supernovae},
  author = {Conor M. B. Omand and Nikhil Sarin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.12997},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

13 pages+ 5 pages of appendices. Version accepted by MNRAS. Model available in public code Redback: https://github.com/nikhil-sarin/redback

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:03:46.243Z