A VLBI Search for Radio Supernovae in Wolf Rayet Galaxies

Abstract

We have used the VLBI High Sensitivity Array (VLBA with VLA, Green Bank Telescope, and Arecibo) to search for young radio supernovae in three nearby Wolf Rayet dwarf galaxies containing Super Star Clusters (SSCs) and signs of extreme star formation in the last few million years. No milliarcsecond radio sources were detected in II Zw 40, He 2-10, or NGC 5253, implying that these galaxies contain few radio supernovae, despite the fact that they have at least some star formation going back to 10 million years ago. The upper limits of the source powers range from 6 x 10^17 W/Hz to ~2 x 10^18 W/Hz at 5 GHz, roughly 0.6 to 2.2 times the power of the galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Comparison with the radio supernova population in Arp 299 implies that the current supernova rates in the three dwarf galaxies are below 10^{-2}/yr, consistent with standard star formation models that predict supernova rates of 10^{-3}/yr or less in our targets. In He 2-10, the VLBI non-detection of a compact VLA source with a significant nonthermal component indicates that this source may be dominated by one or more supernova remnants with ages of a few hundred years or more, which are comparable to Cas~A in power, and size.