# The Late Time Light Curve of SN 1998bw Associated with GRB980425

## 1 Introduction

In their search for an optical counterpart for the gamma ray burst GRB980425, Galama et al. (1998a) detected SN 1998bw in the galactic arm of ESO 184-G82(EOP 184-82), which Tinney et al. (1998) determined to have a red shift of $`0.0085\pm 0.0002`$. The supernova’s light curves rose sharply after the burst, and its spatial coordinates were well within the burst’s error box, strongly suggesting a connection between the two events. The probability of their independence was estimated by Galama et al. (1998a) at $`1.1\times 10^4`$. However, BeppoSAX also detected a fading x-ray source (generally thought to be the hallmark of the burst counterpart) at a position inconsistent with SN 1998bw (Pian et al. 1998, Piro et al. 1998, Pian et al. 1999), so the relationship between SN 1998bw and GRB980425 is unclear. Further observations showed that SN 1998bw is positionally coincident with a second BeppoSAX x-ray source which has faded by a factor of two in brightness from 26 April to 10 November 1999, which is consistent with x-ray emission from a supernova plus the galaxy (Pian et al. 1999).

SN 1998bw has peculiar and unique properties other than a possible association with a Gamma-Ray Burst. Its spectrum is unique (although two Type Ic supernovae have somewhat similar spectra; see Iwamoto et al. 1998) and displays ejection velocities measured from the blue wings of the Ca II line as high as $`60,000kms^1`$ (Kulkarni et al. 1998). Its emissions at radio wavelengths increased much more quickly than other supernovae, and it is also the most luminous supernova to date at radio wavelengths (Kulkarni et al. 1998). These coincidences of unusual properties greatly strengthen the connections between GRB 980425 and SN 1998bw. In general, a concensus has emerged that the burst is related to the supernova, and this has inspired much research detailing connections between the two phenomena.

Due to the unique and pivotal nature of SN 1998bw, it is imperative that the light curve be tracked in a wide range of optical bands as long as possible. Galama et al. (1998a) tracked the U, B, V, R, and I light curves for 58 days after the burst, and these showed a typical peak as generally seen for supernovae of many types. In the interests of recording as much data as possible for such an unprecedented event, we followed up on their results with further observations in the B, V, and I filters.

## 2 Observations

The data were obtained using the Yale 1-m telescope, at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, from 27 June through 28 October 1998. Our series of observations commenced as soon as the refurbishing of the Yale 1-m telescope had been compeleted and the CCD camera installed. The images’ pixel size was 0.30”, with a field of view of $`10.2^{}\times 10.2^{}`$. Our exposure times were always 300 seconds per image, using B, V, and I filters. Our typical seeing had a FWHM of $`1.2^{\prime \prime }`$. We obtained 139 measures of the brightness of SN 1998bw.

The images were first processed with the normal procedure for overscan correction, bias subtraction and flat fielding. Our photometric analyses were made with IRAF’s program “APPHOT”. We used apertures of only three pixel radius to minimize interference from the parent galaxy, which was a sufficient size because of the high signal-to-noise ratio. Our background annuli were constructed with inner and outer radii of thirty and forty pixels centered on the star, with the sky background taken as the mode within this annulus. The deduced sky background for the supernova is close to that deduced for isolated stars.

For each image, observed magnitudes were recorded for SN 1998bw and for five comparison stars. We used the updated magnitudes provided by Galama et al. (1998b), choosing numbers 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 because they were relatively bright. Comparison star #2 was excluded because its data was just eratic enough to arouse suspicion that it might be a small amplitude variable star, although is was not definitively identified as such.

We were able to estimate our magnitude uncertainties by comparing the standard stars with each other in a variety of images. These errors were determined to be substantially dependent on the apparent magnitudes of the stars due to the normal Poisson variations, which is why we used the brightest ones for our data analysis. Monitoring the differences between the standard stars in each image also enables us to catch photometric problems with the standard stars (due to cosmic rays, bad columns, etc.). A few nights had large uncertainty due to clouds or bad seeing. Our results are that in general we have systematic uncertainty of 0.02 mag added in quadrature with the statistical errors reported by IRAF. For the supernova, the statistical errors are generally substantially smaller than our systematic errors in the early portions of our light curve. The comparison stars are fainter than the supernova, yet our use of the average of five stars as our ‘standard’ improves the accuracy of this ‘standard’ to $`0.01`$ mag. In all, the uncertainties in our supernova magnitudes typically range from 0.02 to 0.04 mag.

SN 1998bw appears in the spiral arm of its host galaxy, so we must consider the effects of the galaxy light in our photometry. Fortunately, the supernova was quite bright during the entire duration of our study and the contribution of light from the spiral arm is minimal. To be quantitative, we have measured the surface brightness of the center of the spiral arm on both sides of the supernova and compared this with the total brightness within our photometric aperture centered on the supernova. Images of the galaxy from before the supernova show the brightness along the spiral arm to be uniform along the position of the supernova, so we know that there are no significant knots or stars at the supernova position. At the beginning of our light curve, the contamination from galaxy light in our photometry aperture varied from $`0.5\%`$ to $`0.8\%`$ for the three filters. So we have a systematic error which is smaller than our quoted uncertainties that will make the supernova slightly fainter than tabulated. Ideally, we should wait several years for the transient to fade to invisibility, then get further images with our same equipment and subtract off the galaxy light; but in the meantime the systematic error is known to be small.

For each image, we compared the instrumental magnitude of the supernova to the average instrumental magnitude of the five standard stars. This difference was then applied to the average of the standard stars’ actual magnitudes taken from Galama et al. (1998b) to determine the actual magnitude of SN 1998bw. Our results are plotted in Fig. 1 (along with Galama’s earlier results) and tabulated in Table 1.

We are impressed with the remarkable linearity of our portion of the light curves. The best fit lines to our data are displayed in Figure 1, and we see no significant systematic deviation from perfect lines at any time or in any color. Our limits on systematic deviations are $`<0.05`$ for our entire 123 day observation time. In the B filter, the light is declining at $`0.0141\pm 0.0002`$ magnitudes per day, which corresponds to a radioactive half-life of $`53.4\pm 0.8`$ days. For V, these figures are $`0.0194\pm 0.0003`$ magnitudes per day, which a corresponding radioactive half-life of $`40.9\pm 0.7`$ days. For I, the figures are $`0.0181\pm 0.0003`$ magnitudes per day and a half-life of $`41.6\pm 0.7`$ days.

The B light curve has a somewhat slower decay than in the V and I bands. For an extinction of $`A_v=0.2`$ (Galama et al. 1998), the supernova’s B-V was 0.82 mag at the beginning of our observation period and around 0.3 mag toward the end. The extinction corrected V-I rose by a small amount, from 0.53 to 0.60 mag, during the same time period.

With our B, V, and I light curves, we can approximate the bolometric light curve for radiation from the ultraviolet to the infrared. We have done this by first correcting for galactic extinction ($`A_v=0.20`$), converting our magnitudes into $`f_\nu `$, adopting a power law spectrum from B to V and from V to I, adopting a Rayleigh-Jeans spectrum for lower frequencies than I, adopting a Wien spectrum for higher frequencies than B, and integrating the spectrum. For JD2450996 (68 days after the burst) we get a bolometric flux of $`1.1\times 10^{11}ergcm^2s^1`$ or a bolometric luminosity of $`2.0\times 10^{42}ergs^1`$. For JD2451098 (170 days after the burst) we get a bolometric flux of $`2.1\times 10^{12}ergcm^2s^1`$ or a bolometric luminosity of $`3.9\times 10^{41}ergs^1`$. For the conversion to luminosity, we adopted a velocity of $`2550kms^1`$ and a Hubble Constant of $`65kms^1Mpc^1`$, for a distance of 39 Mpc. These calculated luminosities have significant uncertainties arising from the extinction ($`10\%`$), bolometric correction ($`30\%`$), and distance ($`20\%`$), so that overall errors perhaps as large as $`50\%`$ might be present. The effective half-life for this decline is 44 days.

## 3 Comparison with Other Supernova

SN1998bw has many unique and extreme properties, however at first look, its light curve appears to be that of a normal supernova. Is the light curve unique? We will compare our light curve with those of Type Ia, Ib, Ic, and II supernovae in turn.

For the majority of Type Ia events, the B light curve fades by 1.1 magnitudes in the first 15 days afters peak (Hamuy 1996a), while SN 1998bw has the same drop. The usual slope of the late time B light curve is $`0.01516\pm 0.0024mag/day`$ for Type Ia events (Barbon et al. 1984) and is easily compatible with that of SN 1998bw. However, the decline rates in V and I differ substantially between most of the Type Ia events and SN 1998bw (0.0184 versus 0.024 and 0.0181 versus 0.041 magnitudes per day respectively) from 70-80 days after peak. A second important difference is that almost all Type Ia events display a prominent bump in the I band light curves from 20-50 days after peak (Hamuy et al. 1996a, Riess et al. 1999), while SN 1998bw does not show any sign of such a bump. A third difference is that SN 1998bw has a peak absolute magnitude of $`18.88\pm 0.05`$ (Galama et al. 1998a) whereas the majority of Type Ia events have peak absolute magnitudes of $`19.26`$ (Hamuy et al. 1996b). However, uncertainties in distance and extinction can perhaps be as large as a third of a magnitude, so this third difference may not be significant. A fourth difference is that the extinction corrected color at peak of SN 1998bw is $`BV=0.47\pm 0.07`$ mag (Galama et al. 1998a) while the usual value for Type Ia events is $`0.00mag`$ (Hamuy et al. 1996b). So in all, the light curve of SN 1998bw looks similar to that of Type Ia events, yet detailed parameters are quantitatively different.

Perhaps a closer match can be found with the anomalous Type Ia SN 1991bg (Leibundgut et al. 1993; Fillipenko et al. 1992). This event had a substantially redder peak color ($`BV0.8`$), a much lower peak absolute magnitude ($`M_B=16.62`$), and no bump in the I band light curves. While the detailed light curve (and spectrum) of SN 1991bg is still different from that SN 1998bw, we note that many of the properties are more like those of SN 1991bg than of normal Type Ia events.

Type Ib and Ic light curves have not been characterized as closely as those of Type Ia supernovae. Nevertheless, enough is known (e.g., Uomoto & Kirshner, 1986; Ensman and Woosley 1988; Clocchiatti et al. 1997) to find similarities and differences with SN 1998bw. The overall light curve of Type Ib and Ic events is the same for SN 1998bw with similar decline rates over the first 15 days. The late time decline rate of Type Ic events vary, apparently with two classes, as slow and fast decliners. The 60-180 day decline rates of roughly 0.016 magnitudes per day are seen for the Type Ic events SN1983N and SN1983V (Clocchiatti et al. 1997) which is comparable to that for SN 1998bw. The color evolution for Type Ic events is similar to that of SN 1998bw, both at peak and at late times. The peak absolute magnitude of Type Ic events vary about $`M_B17.5`$, yet are all significantly fainter than SN 1998bw. However, with the few well measured Type Ic events having a wide scatter, the luminosity of SN 1998bw may not be unusual. In all, SN 1998bw appears to have a light curve within the class of Type Ic events.

Type II supernovae vary greatly in their light curve shape and color (Patat et al. 1993). The colors, peak absolute magnitudes, decline rate of SN 1998bw from peak, and late time decline rate are all within the normal range for the IIL subclass. Nevertheless, there are some subtle distinctions; such as a total lack of any indication of a plateau in the I band and the switch to the late time decline rate only $`30`$ days after peak.

In all, the light curve of SN1998bw is fully consistent with those of Type Ic supernovae, in keeping with the spectral classification and physical models.

## 4 Comparison with Models

The decay rate of the tail is so close to an exponential that we suggest that this is no coincidence. In addition, the measured decline rate corresponds to that expected from the decay of radio active cobalt (with a half-life of 78.5 days) as modified by the effects due to the expansion of the shell (Colgate and McKee 1969). Hence, it is reasonable to take our light curve as strong evidence that the late time light curve of SN 1998bw is being powered by the decay of cobalt, with the difference in slope caused by the leakage of gamma radiation from the shell.

Three detailed models have been presented seeking to explain the light curve of SN1998bw. Iwamoto et al. (1998) and Iwamoto (1999) model the event as an extremely energetic explosion of a massive star stripped down to its carbon/oxygen core. Woosley, Eastman, and Schmidt (1998) independently present a similar model with similar results. Höflich, Wheeler, and Wang (1998) and Wheeler, Höflich, and Wang (1999) present a model with an aspherical explosion in the nondegenerate C/O core of a massive star. An asymmetric event can account for the observed polarization. All three models account for the early light curve, the early colors, and the early spectrum with generally acceptable accuracy.

Iwamoto et al. (1998) and Iwamoto (1999) present predictions for the late-time V light curve of SN1998bw (see Figure 1 of Iwamoto 1999) as a perfectly straight line in a log-log plot of flux versus time since the burst, for a predicted power law with slope -2.75. This power law prediction does not agree with the observed exponential decline. However, K. Nomoto (1999, private communication) has presented a more detailed light curve prediction which shows a more complicated shape (neither a power law nor an exponential) than presented in Iwamoto (1999). The model V magnitude declines by 2.80 magnitudes from 27 June to 28 October with deviations from a simple exponential curve defined by the end points of up to 0.22 mag. For comparison, our data shows a decline of 2.26 mag over this same time and maximum departures from a simple exponential decline of $`<0.05mag`$.

One way to distinguish the three models is by the explosion energy and the ejected $`{}_{}{}^{56}Ni`$ mass. The spherically symmetric models have energies and nickel masses of around $`3\times 10^{52}erg`$ and $`0.7M_{}`$, while the aspherical models have $`2\times 10^{51}erg`$ and $`0.2M_{}`$. Wheeler, Höflich, and Wang point out that if the late time light curve tracks the radioactive decay line then the ejected nickel mass can be determined, and that this might prove the simplest discriminant between models.

One possible method to measure the nickel mass from our light curve is to scale the luminosity in the tail from another supernova of known late-time luminosity and nickel mass. The best case for comparison might be SN1987A which has a well measured light curve (Hamuy et al. 1988), a well known distance (50 kpc; McCray 1993), and a well known nickel mass ($`0.069\pm 0.003M_{}`$; McCray 1993). On day 170 after the core collapse, SN1998bw had an extinction corrected V magnitude of 17.60, while SN1987A had an extinction corrected magnitude of 4.39. If SN1987A were placed at 39 Mpc, then its V magnitude should appear 1.25 mag fainter than we observed for SN1998bw. This implies a nickel mass 3.2 times larger, or that SN1998bw has $`0.22M_{}`$. The dominant uncertainty arises from the distance to SN1998bw, for which peculiar velocities of up to $`400kms^1`$ and uncertainties in the Hubble Constant of up to $`10kms^1Mpc^1`$ yield nickel mass uncertainties of $`0.09M_{}`$.

The procedure in the previous paragraph can only be approximate, in particular since there might be substantial leakage of the gamma rays from the expanding nebula. Such leakage could explain why our observed decline is steeper than that associated with $`{}_{}{}^{56}Co`$ decay (Clocchiatti & Wheeler 1997). Such leakage would lower the late-time luminosity and lower the deduced nickel mass. The V light curve of SN1987A declined with the $`{}_{}{}^{56}Co`$ rate whereas the V light curve of SN1998bw declined at a roughly twice the rate. The effect of leakage on our previous derived nickel mass can only be estimated within specific models, yet it is likely that our $`0.22\pm 0.09M_{}`$ value must be regarded as a lower limit.

We expect that our late-time light curve will provide a set of observations useful for refining and constraining individual models of the unique SN1998bw. In particular, our data might constrain the quantity of ejected $`{}_{}{}^{56}Ni`$ so as to decide between symmetric and asymmetric models. Another challenge to models is to explain the near perfect exponential shape of the light curve even though the slope is not that of the $`{}_{}{}^{56}Co`$ decay.

We will continue to monitor the brightness of SN1998bw in 1999. However, the background light from its host galaxy is increasingly a problem for exact photometry.