A simple analysis of Type I superluminous supernova peak spectra: composition, expansion velocities, and dynamics

Understand

We present a simple and well defined prescription to compare absorption lines in supernova (SN) spectra with lists of transitions drawn from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) database.

• The method is designed to be applicable to simple spectra where the photosphere can be mostly described by absorptions from single transitions with a single photospheric velocity.
• These conditions are plausible for SN spectra obtained shortly after explosion.
• Here we show that the method also works well for spectra of hydrogen-poor (Type I) superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) around peak.