OGLE14-073 - a promising pair-instability supernova candidate (MNRAS paper)
Continuing the collaboration with Alexandra Kozyreva, we have studied the very bright Type II supernova OGLE073-14, investigating a possible pair-instability mechanism. Starting from realistic stellar evolution models for pair-instability supernovae (PISN), we explored the influence of a number of properties such as the total mass of radioactive nickel produced, its distribution in the ejecta and the mixing of hydrogen and identified two possible PISN models for OGLE073-14. The bolometric and broad-band light curves we calculated for these models match the observations very well. In addition, our collaborator Markus Kormer produced details spectral predictions for the models which we also compared to the observations. Hereby, we were able to successfully reproduce important observed spectral features. Most importantly, our models do not seem to suffer from a strong flux suppression in the short wavelength range which has been previously predicted for PISN. From our findings we conclude that a PISN origin of OGLE073-14 is possible and that it is actually one of the most promising candidates for this mechanism. Our results are summarized in a paper which has just been accepted for publication in MNRAS. A preprint may be found on the arxiv.