The Host Galaxies of Rapidly Evolving Transients in the Dark Energy Survey
Abstract
Rapidly evolving transients (RETs), also termed fast blue optical transients (FBOTs), are a distinct class of astrophysical event. They are characterised by lightcurves that decline much faster than common classes supernovae (SNe), span vast ranges in peak luminosity and can be seen to redshifts greater than 1. Their evolution on fast timescales has hindered high quality follow-up observations, and thus their origin and explosion/emission mechanism remains unexplained. In this paper we define the largest sample of RETs to date, comprising 106 objects from the Dark Energy Survey, and perform the most comprehensive analysis of RET host galaxies. Using deep-stacked photometry and emission-lines from OzDES spectroscopy, we derive stellar masses and star-formation rates (SFRs) for 49 host galaxies, and metallicities for 37. We find that RETs explode exclusively in star-forming galaxies and are thus likely associated with massive stars. Comparing RET hosts to samples of host galaxies of other explosive transients as well as field galaxies, we find that RETs prefer galaxies with high specific SFRs, indicating a link to young stellar populations, similar to stripped-envelope SNe. RET hosts appear to show a lack of chemical enrichment, their metallicities akin to long duration gamma-ray bursts and superluminous SN host galaxies. There are no clear relationships between properties of the host galaxies and the peak magnitudes or decline rates of the transients themselves.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.08653,
title = {The Host Galaxies of Rapidly Evolving Transients in the Dark Energy Survey},
author = {P. Wiseman and M. Pursiainen and M. Childress and E. Swann and M. Smith and L. Galbany and C. Lidman and T. M. Davis and C. P. Gutiérrez and A. Möller and B. P. Thomas and C. Frohmaier and R. J. Foley and S. R. Hinton and L. Kelsey and R. Kessler and G. F. Lewis and M. Sako and D. Scolnic and M. Sullivan and M. Vincenzi and T. M. C. Abbott and M. Aguena and S. Allam and J. Annis and E. Bertin and S. Bhargava and D. Brooks and D. L. Burke and A. Carnero Rosell and D. Carollo and M. Carrasco Kind and J. Carretero and M. Costanzi and L. N. da Costa and H. T. Diehl and P. Doel and S. Everett and P. Fosalba and J. Frieman and J. García-Bellido and E. Gaztanaga and K. Glazebrook and D. Gruen and R. A. Gruendl and J. Gschwend and G. Gutierrez and D. L. Hollowood and K. Honscheid and D. J. James and K. Kuehn and N. Kuropatkin and M. Lima and M. A. G. Maia and J. L. Marshall and P. Martini and F. Menanteau and R. Miquel and A. Palmese and F. Paz-Chinchón and A. A. Plazas and A. K. Romer and E. Sanchez and V. Scarpine and M. Schubnell and S. Serrano and I. Sevilla-Noarbe and N. E. Sommer and E. Suchyta and M. E. C. Swanson and G. Tarle and B. E. Tucker and D. L. Tucker and T. N. Varga and A. R. Walker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.08653},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
16 pages, 15 figures, submitted to MNRAS