Fast luminous blue transients from newborn black holes

Kazumi Kashiyama, Eliot Quataert

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

Newborn black holes in collapsing massive stars can be accompanied by a fallback disc. The accretion rate is typically super-Eddington and strong disc outflows are expected. Such outflows could be directly observed in some failed explosions of compact (blue supergiants or Wolf-Rayet stars) progenitors, and may be more common than long-duration gamma-ray bursts. Using an analytical model, we show that the fallback disc outflows produce blue UV-optical transients with a peak bolometric luminosity of ~1042-43 erg s-1 (peak R-band absolute AB magnitudes of -16 to -18) and an emission duration of ~ afew to ~10 d. The spectra are likely dominated intermediate mass elements, but will lack much radioactive nuclei and iron-group elements. The above properties are broadly consistent with some of the rapid blue transients detected by Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System and Palomar Transient Factory. This scenario can be distinguished from alternative models using radio observations within a few years after the optical peak.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2656-2662
Number of pages7
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume451
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 11 2015
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • Stars: black holes
  • Supernovae: general

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