Paper
An environmental analysis of the fast transient AT2018cow and implications for its progenitor and late-time brightness
Release time:2023-03-22 Hits:Impact Factor:4.8
DOI number:10.1093/mnras/stac3773
Journal:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abstract:The nature of the newly discovered fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) is still puzzling astronomers. In this paper, we carry out a comprehensive analysis of the molecular gas, ionized gas, and stellar populations in the environment of the nearby FBOT AT2018cow based on ALMA, VLT/MUSE, and HST/WFC3 observations. A prominent molecular concentration of 6 (± 1) × 106 M⊙ is found in the vicinity of AT2018cow, which has given rise to two active star-forming complexes with ages of 4 ± 1 and ≲2.5 Myr, respectively. Each star-forming complex has a stellar mass of 3 × 105 M⊙, and has photoionized a giant H II region with Hα luminosity even comparable to that of the 30 Dor mini-starburst region. AT2018cow is spatially coincident with one of the star-forming complexes; however, it is most likely to reside in its foreground since it has a much smaller extinction than the complex. Its progenitor could have been formed in a different star-forming event, and the non-detection of the associated stellar population constrains the progenitor’s age to be ≳10 Myr and initial mass to be ≲20 M⊙. We further find the late-time brightness of AT2018cow is unlikely to be a stellar object. Its brightness has slightly declined from 2 to 4 yr after explosion and is most likely to originate from AT2018cow itself due to some powering mechanism still working at such late times.
Co-author:Justyn R Maund, Yali Shao, Ida A Janiak
First Author:Ning-Chen Sun
Volume:519
Issue:3
Page Number:3785-3797
Translation or Not:no
Date of Publication:2023-01-06
Included Journals:SCI
Links to published journals:https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/519/3/3785/6973226?redirectedFrom=fulltext