Luminous Supernovae: Unveiling a Population Between Superluminous and Normal Core-collapse Supernovae

Understand

Stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae can be divided into two broad classes: the common Type Ib/c supernovae (SNe Ib/c), powered by the radioactive decay of $^{56}$Ni, and the rare superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), most likely powered by the spin-down of a magnetar central engine.

• Up to now, the intermediate regime between these two populations has remained mostly unexplored.
• Here, we present a comprehensive study of 40 \textit{luminous supernovae} (LSNe), SNe with peak magnitudes of $M_r = -19$ to $-20$ mag, bound by SLSNe on the bright end and by SNe Ib/c on the dim end.
• Spectroscopically, LSNe appear to form a continuum between Type Ic SNe and SLSNe.