Baryon loaded relativistic blast waves in supernovae

Abstract

We provide a new analytic blast wave solution which generalizes the Blandford-McKee solution to arbitrary ejecta masses and Lorentz factors. Until recently relativistic supernovae have been discovered only through their association with long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The blast waves of such explosions are well described by the Blandford-McKee (in the ultra-relativistic regime) and Sedov-Taylor (in the non-relativistic regime) solutions during their afterglows, as the ejecta mass is negligible in comparison to the swept-up mass. The recent discovery of the relativistic supernova SN 2009bb, without a detected GRB, opens up the possibility of highly baryon loaded, mildly relativistic outflows which remains in nearly free-expansion phase during the radio afterglow. In this work, we consider a massive, relativistic shell, launched by a Central Engine Driven EXplosion (CEDEX), decelerating adiabatically due to its collision with the pre-explosion circumstellar wind profile of the progenitor. We compute the synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in the shock amplified magnetic field. This models the radio emission from the circumstellar interaction of a CEDEX. We show that this model explains the observed radio evolution of the prototypical SN 2009bb and demonstrate that SN 2009bb had a highly baryon loaded, mildly relativistic outflow. We discuss the effect of baryon loading on the dynamics and observational manifestations of a CEDEX. In particular, our predicted angular size of SN 2009bb is consistent with very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) upper limits on day 85, but is presently resolvable on VLBI angular scales, since the relativistic ejecta is still in the nearly free-expansion phase. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..