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Early optical imaging polarimetry of type I superluminous supernova 2020ank
Author(s) -
Lee ChienHsiu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.202013805
Subject(s) - physics , supernova , polarimetry , ejecta , astrophysics , brightness , astronomy , photosphere , polarization (electrochemistry) , optics , spectral line , chemistry , scattering
We present imaging polarimetry observations of the recently discovered type I superluminous supernova 2020ank, in order to use (a)symmetry of the ejecta and SN photosphere that manifest themselves in the supernova lights as a probe of its explosion mechanism and investigate the energy sources that power the superluminous supernovae behind the scene. We have obtained linear imaging polarimetry in the optical with the Alhambra Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera mounted on the 2.5 m Nordic Optical Telescope. Our observations on March 1, 2020 manifest negligible polarization at 0.6 ± 0.3% level, shortly after the supernova reached its maximum brightness in mid‐February. The low degree of polarization implies that the explosion of SN 2020ank is nearly spherical; this is consistent with results of polarimetric observations of other superluminous supernovae at early epochs.