Highly luminous supernovae associated with gamma-ray bursts

I. GRB 111209A/SN 2011kl in the context of stripped-envelope and superluminous supernovae^⋆

¹ Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
e-mail: kann@iaa.es
² Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
³ Universe Cluster, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstraße 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
⁵ Departamento de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Andres Bello, Avda. Republica 252, Santiago, Chile
⁶ INAF-IASF Bologna, Area della Ricerca CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁷ Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁸ Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
⁹ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
¹⁰ ESO, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, Chile
¹¹ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
¹² Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Horská 3a/22, 12800 Prague, Czech Republic
¹³ Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126 Pisa, Italy
¹⁴ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
¹⁵ Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
¹⁶ Department of Particle Physics & Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
¹⁷ American River College, Physics and Astronomy Dpt., 4700 College Oak Drive, Sacramento, CA 95841, USA
¹⁸ Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, 306, Santiago 22, Chile
¹⁹ Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, 7820436 Macul, Santiago, Chile
²⁰ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Faculty of Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
²¹ Department of Chemistry and Physics, Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI 02809, USA

Received: 22 June 2016
Accepted: 4 March 2019

Abstract

Context. GRB 111209A, one of the longest gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) ever observed, is linked to SN 2011kl, which is the most luminous GRB supernova (SN) detected so far. Several lines of evidence indicate that this GRB-SN is powered by a magnetar central engine.

Aims. We place SN 2011kl into the context of large samples of SNe, addressing in more detail the question of whether this GRB-SN could be radioactively powered, and whether it represents an extreme version of a GRB-SN or an underluminous superluminous SN (SLSN).

Methods. We modelled SN 2011kl using SN 1998bw as a template and derived a bolometric light curve including near-infrared data. We compared the properties of SN 2011kl to literature results on stripped-envelope and SLSNe.

Results. A comparison in the k, s context, i.e. comparing SN 2011kl to SN 1998bw templates in terms of luminosity and light-curve stretch, clearly shows SN 2011kl is the most luminous GRB-SN to date and is spectrally very dissimilar to other events because it is significantly bluer/hotter. Although SN 2011kl does not reach the classical luminosity threshold of SLSNe and evolves faster than any of these objects, it resembles SLSNe more than the classical GRB-associated broad-lined Type Ic SNe in several aspects.

Conclusions. GRB 111209A was a very energetic event, both at early (prompt emission) and at very late (SN) times. We show in a companion publication that with the exception of the extreme duration, the GRB and afterglow parameters are in agreement with the known distributions for these parameters. SN 2011kl, on the other hand, is exceptional both in luminosity and spectral characteristics, indicating that GRB 111209A was likely not powered by a standard-model collapsar central engine, further supporting our earlier conclusions. Instead, it reveals the possibility of a direct link between GRBs and SLSNe.