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There is increasing evidence that massive stars may exhibit an enhanced mass loss shortly before their termination explosion. Some of them also indicate the enhancement of their circumstellar matter (CSM) is not spherically symmetric. Supernova (SN) interacting with aspherical CSM could induce special polarization signals from multiple radiation components that deviate from spherical symmetry. We investigate the time-evolution of the continuum polarization induced by the SN ejecta interacting with a disk/torus-like CSM. Our calculation suggests that the interaction between the SN ejecta and an immediate disk-like CSM with a thin, homogenous density structure would produce a high continuum polarization, which may reach a peak level of $\sim$15\%. The interplay between the evolving geometry of the emitting regions and the time-variant flux ratio between the polar ejecta and the equatorial CSM interaction may produce a double-peaked feature in the polarization time sequence. A similar trend of the time evolution of the polarization is also found for a radially extended CSM disk that exhibits a wind-like density structure, with an overall relatively lower level of continuum polarization ($<2.5\%$) during the interaction process. We also identify a non-uniform temperature distribution along the radial direction of the CSM disk, which yields a strong wavelength dependence of the continuum polarization. These signatures provide a unique geometric diagnostic to explore the interaction process and the associated extreme mass loss of the progenitors of interacting transients., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Final version matching the publication

The formation of black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) or BH-BH systems may be accompanied with special supernova (SN) signals, due to the accretion feedback from the companion BH. The additional heating, which is mainly attributed to the Blandford-Payne mechanism, would disrupt the isotropic nature of the luminosity distribution on the surface of the SN ejecta, leading to the appearance of polarization. Here we develop a three dimensional (3D) Monte Carlo polarization simulation code (MCPSC) to conduct simulations for these special SNe. We find that the maximum polarization level of approximately \sim 2 occurs at the peak time of SN emission in the "close-binary" scenario, while in the "faraway-binary" case, maximum polarization (i.e. \sim 0.7) is observed at a considerably later time than the peak of the SN. The magnitude of polarization is dependent on the degree of unevenness in the luminosity distribution and the angle between the line of sight and the equatorial direction. When considering the geometric distortion of supernova ejecta at the same time, the magnitude of polarization may either increase (for a oblate ellipsoidal shape) or decrease (for a prolate ellipsoidal shape). The polarization signatures represent a promising auxiliary instrument to facilitate the identification of the companion-fed SNe. Moreover, by comparing the event rate of these special SNe with the event rate density of LIGO-Virgo detected BH-NS/BH systems could further help to distinguish the BH-NS/BH formation channel., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures,accepted for publication in APJ

The successful operation of dedicated detectors has brought us valuable information for understanding the central engine and the progenitor of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). For instance, the giant X-ray and optical bumps found in some long-duration GRBs (e.g. GRBs 121027A and 111209A) imply that some extended central engine activities, such as the late X-ray flares, are likely due to the fall-back of progenitor envelope materials. Here we systemically search for long GRBs that consist of a giant X-ray or optical bump from the Swift GRB sample, and eventually we find 19 new possible candidates. The fall-back accretion model could well interpret the X-ray and optical bump for all candidates within a reasonable parameter space. Six candidates showing simultaneous bump signatures in both X-ray and optical observations, which could be well fitted at the same time when scaling down the X-ray flux into optical by one order of magnitude, are consistent with the standard $F_{\nu}\propto\nu^{1/3}$ synchrotron spectrum. The typical fall-back radius is distributed around $10^{10}\rm-10^{12}$ cm, which is consistent with the typical radius of a Wolf-Rayet star. The peak fall-back accretion rate is in the range of $\sim 10^{-11}-10^{-4}M_{\odot} \ \text{s} ^{-1}$ at time $\sim10^{2}- 10^{5}~\rm s$, which is relatively easy to fulfill as long as the progenitor's metallicity is not too high. Combined with the sample we found, future studies of the mass supply rate for the progenitors with different mass, metallicity, and angular momentum distribution would help us to better constrain the progenitor properties of long GRBs., Comment: accepted for publication by ApJ

Evidence for the central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been collected in the Neil Gehrels \emph{Swift} data. For instance, some GRBs show an internal X-ray plateau followed by very steep decay, which is difficult to be interpreted within the framework of a black hole (BH) central engine, but are consistent within a rapidly spinning magnetar engine picture. The very steep decay at the end of the plateau suggests a sudden cessation of the central engine, which is explained as the collapse of a supra-massive magnetar into a black hole when it spins down. Here we propose that some additional evidence, such as a second X-ray plateau feature would show up, if the fall-back accretion could activate the newborn BH and sufficient energy could be transferred from the newborn BH to the GRB blast wave. With a systematic data analysis for all long GRBs, we find three candidates in \emph{Swift} sample, i.e., GRBs 070802, 090111, and 120213A, whose X-ray afterglow light curves contain two plateaus, with the first one being an internal plateau. We find that in a fairly loose and reasonable parameter space, the second X-ray plateau data for all 3 GRBs could be well interpreted with our proposed model. Future observations are likely to discover more similar events, which could offer more information of the properties of the magnetar as well as the newborn BH., Comment: accepted for publication by ApJ

The LIGO detection of gravitational waves (GW) from merging black holes in 2015 marked the beginning of a new era in observational astronomy. The detection of an electromagnetic signal from a GW source is the critical next step to explore in detail the physics involved. The Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3), located at Dome A, Antarctica, is uniquely situated for rapid response time-domain astronomy with its continuous night-time coverage during the austral winter. We report optical observations of the GW source (GW~170817) in the nearby galaxy NGC 4993 using AST3. The data show a rapidly fading transient at around 1 day after the GW trigger, with the $i$-band magnitude declining from $17.23\pm0.13$ magnitude to $17.72\pm0.09$ magnitude in $\sim 1.8$ hour. The brightness and time evolution of the optical transient associated with GW~170817 are broadly consistent with the predictions of models involving merging binary neutron stars. We infer from our data that the merging process ejected about $\sim 10^{-2}$ solar mass of radioactive material at a speed of up to $30\%$ the speed of light., Comment: 10 pages, 4 Figures