Emission peaks in the light curve of core collapse supernovae by late jets

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ABSTRACT We build a toy model where the central object, i.e. a newly born neutron star or a black hole, launches jets at late times and show that these jets might account for peaks in the light curve of some peculiar (i.e. having unusual light curves) core collapse supernovae (CCSNe) when the jets interact with the CCSN ejecta. We assume that the central object accretes fallback material and launches two short-lived opposite jets weeks to months after the explosion. We model each jet-ejecta interaction as a spherically symmetric ‘mini-explosion’ that takes place inside the ejecta. We assume that each ‘mini-explosion’ adds emission that is symmetric in time around the late peak, and with a rise in emission power that has the same slope as that of the main CCSN light curve. In total, we use 12 parameters in the toy model. In our toy model, late jets form stronger emission peaks than early jets. Late jets with a kinetic energy of only about one per cent of the kinetic energy of the CCSN itself might form strong emission peaks. We apply our toy model to the brightest peak of the enigmatic CCSN iPTF14hls that has several extra peaks in its light curve. We can fit this emission peak with our toy model when we take the kinetic energy of the jets to be about 1–2 per cent of the CCSN energy, and the shocked ejecta mass to be about 3 per cent of the ejecta mass.