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2020 IPS Conference
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Rapidly Rising Luminous Supernovae
Iair Arcavi
University of California Santa Barbara
The peak luminosities of novae, supernovae (SNe) and superluminous SNe (SLSNe) span a wide and seemingly discontinuous range. The gap between novae and SNe has been a target of intensive observational campaigns in recent years. The gap between SNe and SLSNe (i.e. transients with peak magnitudes between -19 and -21 which are not obviously powered by interaction), however, is less explored. Such a gap, if real, would be an important clue as to the origin of some classes of SLSNe. I will present a few transients from the PTF and SNLS surveys which lie in this luminosity gap. These transients all rise to their peak magnitude very rapidly, ruling out the standard nickel-decay power mechanism for the light curve. Spectra obtained for one of the transients do not show the standard indications of interaction with a dense CSM, meaning these are either new types of interacting SNe, or something even more exotic.