A Systematic Study on the Rise Time–Peak Luminosity Relation for Bright Optical Transients Powered by Wind Shock Breakout

Abstract

Abstract A number of astrophysical transients originating from stellar explosions are powered by the collision of the ejected material with the circumstellar medium, which efficiently produces thermal radiation via shock dissipation. We investigate how such interaction-powered transients are distributed in the peak bolometric luminosity versus the rise time phase space. Taking advantage of less time-consuming one-dimensional simulations with spherical symmetry, we calculated more than 500 models with different circumstellar mass and radius, ejecta mass and energy, and chemical compositions. The peak bolometric luminosity, the total radiated energy, and the rise time of the interaction-powered emission are measured for each simulated light curve. We consider how these characteristic quantities are determined as a function of the model parameters and discuss possible implications for the observed populations of (potential) interaction-powered transients, such as Type IIn supernovae and fast blue optical transients.