Magnetar Engines in Fast Blue Optical Transients and Their Connections with SLSNe, SNe Ic-BL, and lGRBs

Jian-Feng Liu, Jin-Ping Zhu, Liang-Duan Liu, Yun-Wei Yu, Bing Zhang

Published 2022-06-07Version 1

We fit the multi-band lightcurves of 40 fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) with the magnetar engine model. The mass of the FBOT ejecta, the initial spin period and polar magnetic field of the FBOT magnetars are respectively constrained to $M_{\rm{ej}}=0.18^{+0.52}_{-0.13}\,M_\odot$, $P_{\rm{i}}=9.4^{+8.1}_{-3.9}\,{\rm{ms}}$, and $B_{\rm p}=7^{+16}_{-5}\times10^{14}\,{\rm{G}}$. The wide distribution of the value of $B_{\rm p}$ spreads the parameter ranges of the magnetars from superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) to broad-line Type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic-BL; some are observed to be associated with long-duration gamma-ray bursts), which are also suggested to be driven by magnetars. Combining FBOTs with the other transients, we find a strong universal anti-correlation as $P_{\rm{i}}\propto{M_{\rm{ej}}^{-0.45}}$, indicating them could share a common origin. To be specific, it is suspected that all of these transients originate from collapse of extreme-stripped stars in close binary systems, but with different progenitor masses. As a result, FBOTs distinct themselves by their small ejecta masses with an upper limit of ${\sim}1\,M_\odot$, which leads to an observational separation in the rise time of the lightcurves $\sim12\,{\rm d}$. In addition, the FBOTs together with SLSNe can be separated from SNe Ic-BL by an empirical line in the $M_{\rm peak}-t_{\rm rise}$ plane corresponding to an energy requirement of a mass of $^{56}$Ni of $\sim0.3M_{\rm ej}$, where $M_{\rm peak}$ is the peak absolute magnitude of the transients and $t_{\rm rise}$ is the rise time.