Cosmic evolution and metal aversion in superluminous supernova host galaxies

The SUperluminous Supernova Host galaxIES survey aims to provide strong new constraints on the progenitors of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) by understanding the relationship to their host galaxies. We present the photometric properties of 53 H-poor and 16 H-rich SLSN host galaxies out to z ~ 4. We model their spectral energy distributions to derive physical properties, which we compare with other galaxy populations. At low redshift, H-poor SLSNe are preferentially found in very blue, low-mass galaxies with high average specific star formation rates. As redshift increases, the host population follows the general evolution of star-forming galaxies towards more luminous galaxies. After accounting for secular evolution, we find evidence for differential evolution in galaxy mass, but not in the B band and the farultraviolet luminosity (3σ confidence). Most remarkable is the scarcity of hosts with stellar masses above 10M for both classes of SLSNe. In case of H-poor SLSNe, we attribute this to a stifled production efficiency above ~0.4 solar metallicity. However, we argue that, in addition to lowmetallicity, a short-lived stellar population is also required to regulate the SLSN production. H-rich SLSNe are found in a very diverse population of star-forming galaxies. Still, the scarcity of massive hosts suggests a stifled production efficiency above ~0.8 solar metallicity. The large dispersion of the H-rich SLSNe host properties is in stark contrast to those of gamma-ray burst, regular core-collapse SN, and H-poor SLSNe host galaxies. We propose that multiple progenitor channels give rise to this subclass.© 2017 The Authors.
SS acknowledges support from the CONICYT-Chile FONDECYT Postdoctorado fellowship 3140534 and the Feinberg Graduate School. SS and FEB acknowledge support from Basal-CATA PFB-06/2007, and Project IC120009 'Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)' of Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio del Ministerio de Economia, Fomento y Turismo. TK acknowledges support through the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award to P. Schady from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. AdUP and CT acknowledge support from the Ramon y Cajal fellowships and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project AyA2014-58381-P. RA acknowledges support from the European Research Council Advanced Grant c 'QUENCH'.r This paper is based partly on observations made with: ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory; the 6.5-m Magellan Telescopes located at the Las Campanas Observatory, Chile; the GTC), installed in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, in the island of La Palma; the CAHA at Calar Alto, Spain, operated jointly by the Max-Planck Institut fur Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC); the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias; and Karl G. JVLA, New Mexico, United States of America. This research draws upon data provided by Cypriano as distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observato (NOAO) Science Archive. NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. This publication makes use of data products from the WISE, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) is a NASA Small Explorer, launched in 2003 April. We gratefully acknowledge NASA's support for construction, operation, and science analysis for the GALEX mission, developed in cooperation with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales of France and the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology. Based in part on data collected at the Subaru Telescope, Hawaii, United States of America, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Part of the funding for GROND was generously granted from the Leibniz-Prize to Prof G. Hasinger (DFG grant HA 1850/28-1).r Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SDSS-III web site is http://www.sdss3.org/. SDSS-III is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS-III Collaboration, including the University of Arizona, the Brazilian Participation Group, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Florida, the French Participation Group, the German Participation Group, Harvard University, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, the Michigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, New Mexico State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the Spanish Participation Group, University of Tokyo, University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, University of Virginia, University of Washington, and Yale University. Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/IRFU, at CFHT, which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France and the University of Hawaii. This work is partly based on data products produced at Terapix available at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the CFHTLS, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.r This project used public archival data obtained withthe Dark Energy Camera by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Funding for the DES Projects has been provided by the DOE and NSF (USA), MISE (Spain), STFC (UK), HEFCE (UK), NCSA (UIUC), KICP (U. Chicago), CCAPP (Ohio State), MIFPA (Texas A&M), CNPQ, FAPERJ, FINEP (Brazil), MINECO (Spain), DFG (Germany), and the collaborating institutions in the DES, which are Argonne Lab, UC Santa Cruz, University of Cambridge, CIEMAT-Madrid, University of Chicago, University College London, DES-Brazil Consortium, University of Edinburgh, ETH Zurich, Fermilab, University of Illinois, ICE (IEEC-CSIC), IFAE Barcelona, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, LMU Munchen and the associated Excellence Cluster Universe, University of Michigan, NOAO, University of Nottingham, Ohio State University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Portsmouth, SLAC National Lab, Stanford University, University of Sussex, and Texas A&M University.r This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.