Browsing by Author "Postigo, A. de Ugarte"

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    A young stellar environment for the superluminous supernova PTF12dam
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2015) Thoene, C. C.; Postigo, A. de Ugarte; Garcia Benito, R.; Leloudas, G.; Schulze, S.; Amorin, R.
    The progenitors of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) are still a mystery. Hydrogen-poor SLSN hosts are young, highly star-forming dwarf galaxies and the majority belongs to the class of 'extreme emission line galaxies'. Here we present a resolved long-slit study of the host of the hydrogen-poor SLSN PTF12dam probing the kiloparsec environment of the SN site to determine the age of the progenitor. The SN occurred in a star-forming region in the head of a 'tadpole' galaxy with largely uniform properties. The galaxy experienced a recent starburst superimposed on an underlying old stellar population (SP). We determine a very young SP at the SN site of similar to 3 Myr and a metallicity of 12+log(O/H)=8.0 but do not observe any Wolf-Rayet features. The progenitor of PTF12dam was likely a massive star of >60 M-circle dot and one of the first stars exploding as an SN in the most recent starburst episode.