Abstract
The supernova SN 2006aj associated with GRB 060218 is the second-closest GRB-SN observed to date (z=0.033). We present Very Large Telescope, Liverpool Telescope, and Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope multi-color photometry of SN 2006aj. This supernova is found to be subluminous and rapidly evolving. Its early light curve includes an additional wavelength-dependent component, which can be interpreted as shock break-out. We compare the photometric evolution of multi-band light curves with the corresponding properties of the present sample of more than 10 GRB-SNe with precisely known redshifts. Using host-galaxy extinction measurements, we derive extinction-corrected GRB-SN luminosities and place SN 2006aj in the context of this GRB-selected supernova sample as well as in the context of local stripped-envelope supernovae.
Highlights
There is substantial evidence for the association of longduration GRBs with core-collapse supernovae (SNe of type Ic to be more specific; see Filippenko 1997 for a review of supernova spectral classification)
We report results from a photometric ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) campaign on GRB 060218/SN 2006aj covering a time span of nearly 4 weeks, with additional data gathered with the robotic Liverpool Telescope (LT) at La Palma and the robotic Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT; Filippenko et al 2001; Li et al 2003a) at Lick Observatory
In order to place SN 2006aj in the context of the presently known GRB-SNe, we started with the results presented in Z04 and Z05, updated them in cases where new data were available, and corrected the k value using host-galaxy extinctions derived in K06, including uncertainties
Summary
There is substantial evidence for the association of longduration GRBs with core-collapse supernovae (SNe of type Ic to be more specific; see Filippenko 1997 for a review of supernova spectral classification). Additional photometric and partly spectroscopic results on recent GRB-SNe with well-known redshift were presented by Malesani et al (2004; GRB 031203/SN 2003lw), Soderberg et al (2006) and Stanek et al (2005) on SNe associated with GRB 040924 and GRB 041006, as well as Della Valle et al (2006; GRB 050525A/SN 2005nc). We report results from a photometric ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) campaign on GRB 060218/SN 2006aj covering a time span of nearly 4 weeks, with additional data gathered with the robotic Liverpool Telescope (LT) at La Palma and the robotic Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT; Filippenko et al 2001; Li et al 2003a) at Lick Observatory. We update the fits reported in Z04 and Z05, add several more recent GRB-SNe, and correct the photometry for host-galaxy extinction as derived in Kann et al (2006, K06)
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