A young stellar environment for the superluminous supernova PTF12dam

作者：Thoene C C; Postigo A de Ugarte; Garcia Benito R; Leloudas G; Schulze S; Amorin R

来源：Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2015, 451(1): L65-L69.

DOI：10.1093/mnrasl/slv051

• supernovae: individual: PTF12dam
• galaxies: abundances
• galaxies starburst

The progenitors of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are still a mystery. Hydrogen-poor SLSN hosts are young, highly star-forming dwarf galaxies and the majority belongs to the class of 'extreme emission line galaxies'. Here we present a resolved long-slit study of the host of the hydrogen-poor SLSN PTF12dam probing the kiloparsec environment of the SN site to determine the age of the progenitor. The SN occurred in a star-forming region in the head of a 'tadpole' galaxy with largely uniform properties. The galaxy experienced a recent starburst superimposed on an underlying old stellar population (SP). We determine a very young SP at the SN site of similar to 3 Myr and a metallicity of 12+log(O/H)=8.0 but do not observe any Wolf-Rayet features. The progenitor of PTF12dam was likely a massive star of >60 M-circle dot and one of the first stars exploding as an SN in the most recent starburst episode.

• 出版日期2015-7-21