Light curves of hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory

Understand

We investigate the light-curve properties of a sample of 26 spectroscopically confirmed hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) in the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey.

• These events are brighter than SNe Ib/c and SNe Ic-BL, on average, by about 4 and 2~mag, respectively.
• The peak absolute magnitudes of SLSNe-I in rest-frame $g$ band span $-22\lesssim M_g \lesssim-20$~mag, and these peaks are not powered by radioactive $^{56}$Ni, unless strong asymmetries are at play.
• The rise timescales are longer for SLSNe than for normal SNe Ib/c, by roughly 10 days, for events with similar decay times.