An extremely soft and weak fast X-ray transient associated with a luminous supernova
An extremely soft and weak fast X-ray transient associated with a luminous supernova
W. -X. Li, Z. -P. Zhu, X. -Z. Zou, J. -J. Geng, L. -D. Liu, Y. -H. Wang, R. -Z. Li, D. Xu, H. Sun, X. -F. Wang, Y. -W. Yu, B. Zhang, X. -F. Wu, Y. Yang, A. V. Filippenko, X. -W. Liu, W. -M. Yuan, D. Aguado, J. An, T. An, D. A. H. Buckley, A. J. Castro-Tirado, S. -Y. Fu, J. P. U. Fynbo, D. A. Howell, J. -W. Hu, S. -Q. Jiang, A. Kumar, J. -R. Mao, J. R. Maund, X. Liu, B. Mockler, A. Moskvitin, M. Andrews, C. R. Bom, T. G. Brink, K. Chatterjee, Y. Chen, H. -Q. Cheng, J. Cooke, J. L. Dai, G. -W. Du, N. Erasmus, Y. Fang, J. Farah, V. Goranskij, M. Gritsevich, M. Gu, Z. Guo, E. Hsiao, Y. -D. Hu, Y. -L. Hua, W. Jacobson-Galán, S. -M. Jia, C. -C. Jin, M. M. Kasliwal, C. D. Kilpatrick, B. Kumar, W. -H. Lei, C. -K. Li, D. -Y. Li, L. -P. Li, Z. -X. Ling, Q. -C. Liu, Y. Liu, Y. -Q. Liu, A. López-Oramas, O. Maslennikova, C. McCully, I. Monageng, M. Newsone, E. Padilla Gonzalez, H. -W. Pan, H. -W. Peng, G. Pignata, F. Poidevin, S. B. Potter, I. Pérez-Fournon, L. Santana-Silva, A. Santos, C. -Y. Song, F. -F. Song, O. Spiridonova, N. -C. Sun, X. -J. Sun, G. Terreran, L. -Z. Wang, L. -F. Wang, B. -T. Wang, Z. -Y. Wang, G. -L. Wu, D. -F. Xiang, H. -F. Xiao, Y. -F. Xu, S. -J. Xue, S. -Y. Yan, Y. -P. Yang, L. -X. Yu, Y. -H. Zhang, Y. -H. Zhang, C. Zhang, J. -H. Zhang, J. -J. Zhang, W. Zheng, H. Zou
AbstractLong gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs), including their subclasses of low-luminosity GRBs (LL-GRBs) and X-ray flashes (XRFs) characterized by low spectral peak energies, are known to be associated with broad-lined Type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic-BL), which result from the core collapse of massive stars that lose their outer hydrogen and helium envelopes. However, the soft and weak end of the GRB/XRF population remains largely unexplored, due to the limited sensitivity to soft X-ray emission. Here we report the discovery of a fast X-ray transient, EP250108a, detected by the Einstein Probe (EP) in the soft X-ray band at redshift $z = 0.176$, which was followed up by extensive multiband observations. EP250108a shares similar X-ray luminosity as XRF\,060218, the prototype of XRFs, but it extends GRBs/XRFs down to the unprecedentedly soft and weak regimes, with its $E_{\rm peak} \lesssim 1.8\,\mathrm{keV}$ and $E_{\rm iso} \lesssim 10^{49}\, \mathrm{erg}$, respectively. Meanwhile, EP250108a is found to be associated with SN\,2025kg, one of the most luminous and possibly magnetar-powered SNe Ic-BL detected so far. Modeling of the well-sampled optical light curves favors a mildly relativistic outflow as the origin of this event. This discovery demonstrates that EP, with its unique capability, is opening a new observational window into the diverse outcomes of death of massive stars.