Related papers: The Most Luminous Supernovae

Superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are a distinct class of stellar explosions, exhibiting peak luminosities 10-100 times brighter than those of normal SNe. Their extreme luminosities cannot be explained by the radioactive decay of…

Understanding the nature of the luminous 1991T-like supernovae is of great importance to supernova cosmology as they are likely to have been more common in the early universe. In this paper we explore the observational properties of…

The diversity of Type II supernovae (SNe II) is thought to be driven mainly by differences in their progenitor's hydrogen-rich (H-rich) envelope mass, with SNe IIP having long plateaus ($\sim100$ days) and the most massive H-rich envelopes.…

The lightcurve of the explosion of a star with a radius <10-100Rsun is powered mostly by radioactive decay. Observationally such events are dominated by hydrogen deficient progenitors and classified as Type I supernovae: white dwarf…

We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of the peculiar Type IIn/Ibn supernova SN2011hw. Its light curve exhibits a slower decline rate than normal SNeIbc, with a peak absolute magnitude of -19.5 (unfiltered) and a secondary peak of…

Magnetic spin-down of a millisecond neutron star has been proposed as the power source of hydrogen-poor "superluminous" supernovae (SLSNe-I). However, producing an unambiguous test that can distinguish this model from alternatives, such as…

Type-I Superluminous Supernovae (SLSNe) are an exotic class of core-collapse SN (CCSN) that can be up to 100 times brighter and more slowly-evolving than normal CCSNe. SLSNe represent the end-stages of the most massive stripped stars, and…

The Type Ic supernovae are probably "nearly-nude" core collapse events. They are thus of special interest in terms of their evolutionary origin, but also as the source of potential clues to the explosion process that may not be obtained…

Photometric and spectroscopic observations of a slowly declining, luminous Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN 2011hr in the starburst galaxy NGC 2691 are presented. SN 2011hr is found to peak at $M_{B}=-19.84 \pm 0.40\,\rm{mag}$, with a…

Superluminous supernova (SLSN) lightcurves exhibit a superior diversity compared to their regular luminosity counterparts in terms of rise and decline timescales, peak luminosities and overall shapes. It remains unclear whether this…

We present optical imaging and spectroscopy of SN\,2018lfe, which we classify as a Type I superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) at a redshift of $z = 0.3501$ with a peak absolute magnitude of $M_r\approx -22.1$ mag, one of the brightest SLSNe…

As part of the 100IAS survey, a program aimed to obtain nebular-phase spectra for a volume-limited and homogeneous sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), we observed ASASSN-18tb (SN 2018fhw) at 139 days past maximum light. ASASSN-18tb was a…

We present a study of 28 Type I superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) in the context of the ejecta mass and photospheric velocity. We combine photometry and spectroscopy to infer ejecta masses via the formalism of radiation diffusion equations.…

High-quality collections of Type II supernova (SN) light curves are scarce because they evolve for hundreds of days, making follow-up observations time consuming and often extending over multiple observing seasons. In light of these…

I review our current understanding of superluminous supernovae, mysterious events 100 times brighter than conventional stellar explosions.

The majority of thermonuclear explosions in the Universe seem to proceed in a rather standardised way, as explosions of carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs in binary systems, leading to 'normal' Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). However, over the…

The optical and optical/near-infrared pseudo-bolometric light curves of 85 stripped-envelope supernovae (SNe) are constructed using a consistent method and a standard cosmology. The light curves are analysed to derive temporal…

We use GALEX ultraviolet (UV) and optical integrated photometry of the hosts of seventeen luminous supernovae (LSNe, having peak M_V < -21) and compare them to a sample of 26,000 galaxies from a cross-match between the SDSS DR4 spectral…

We present a large sample of 39 nebular-phase optical spectra of 25 hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) and jointly analyze them with previously published spectra of 12 events. We measure the properties of key emission…

We present an analysis of the photometric and spectroscopic dataset of the Type II supernova (SN) 2018ivc in the nearby (10 Mpc) galaxy Messier 77. Thanks to the high cadence of the CHASE survey, we observed the SN rising very rapidly by…