A statistical study of super-luminous supernovae in the magnetar engine model and implications for their connection with gamma-ray bursts and hypernovae

By fitting the bolometric light curves of 31 super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe) with the magnetar engine model, we derive the ejecta masses and magnetar parameters for these SLSNe. The lower boundary of magnetic field strengths of SLSN magnetars can be set just around the critical field strength $B_{\rm c}$ of electron Landau quantization. In more details, SLSN magnetars can further be divided into two subclasses of magnetic fields of $\sim(1-5)B_{\rm c}$ and $\sim(5-10)B_{\rm c}$, respectively. It is revealed that these two subclasses of magnetars are just associated with the slow-evolving and fast-evolving bolometric light curves of SLSNe. In comparison, the magnetars harbored in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and associated hypernovae are usually inferred to have much higher magnetic fields with a lower boundary about $\sim10B_{\rm c}$. This robustly suggests that it is the magnetic fields that play the crucial role in distinguishing SLSNe from GRBs/hypernovae. The rotational energy of SLSN magnetars are found to be correlated with the masses of supernova ejecta, which provides a clue to explore the nature of their progenitors. Moreover, the distribution of ejecta masses of SLSNe is basically intermediate between those of normal core-collapse supernovae and hypernovae. This could indicate an intrinsic connection among these different stellar explosions.
Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ