Modeling the Light Curves of the Luminous Type Ic Supernova 2007D

Abstract

SN 2007D is a nearby (redshift z = 0.023146), luminous Type Ic supernova (SN) having a narrow light curve (LC) and high peak luminosity. Previous research based on the assumption that it was powered by the 56 Ni cascade decay suggested that the inferred 56 Ni mass and the ejecta mass are ∼1.5 M ⊙ and ∼3.5 M ⊙ , respectively. In this paper, we employ some multiband LC models to model the R -band LC and the color ( V − R ) evolution of SN 2007D to investigate the possible energy sources powering them. We find that the pure 56 Ni model is disfavored; the multiband LCs of SN 2007D can be reproduced by a magnetar whose initial rotational period P 0 and magnetic field strength B p are (or ) ms and (or ) G, respectively. By comparing the spectrum of SN 2007D with that of some superluminous SNe (SLSNe), we find that it might be a luminous SN like several luminous “gap-filler” optical transients that bridge ordinary and SLSNe, rather than a genuine SLSN.