arXiv subjects

Liangduan Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Liangduan Liu.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

AT2019ijn: a fast-rising, slow-decaying blue optical transient with exceptionally bright radio emission

We report the discovery of a peculiar optical transient, AT2019ijn, occurred in the nuclear region of a dwarf galaxy at z=0.273. It rises rapidly to peak at a luminosity of Mg=-21.1 in 5 days, followed by a slow decline over more than a month, during which the optical emission has a persistently high blackbody temperature of T_BB~1.5-1.6x10^4 K. The radio emission is exceptional which peaks at 640 days after optical discovery with a high luminosity of 2x10^31 erg/s/Hz. The peak radio luminosity is at least two orders of magnitude brighter than known radio-bright fast blue optical transients and supernova explosions at similar epochs, but comparable to jetted tidal disruption events. The luminous and long-lasting radio emission with a late-time peak can be explained by an off-axis relativistic jet with a viewing angle of ~40 deg. We discuss possible origins for AT2019ijn and favor a jetted tidal disruption event involving an intermediate-mass black hole of ~10^5 Msun, although a jetted magnetar model cannot be fully ruled out. AT2019ijn represents a new class of relativistic optical transients that highlights the importance of radio surveys for discovering off-axis jetted events.

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arXiv2026

X-rays breaking out of pre-explosion ejecta mark a supernova's first light

Massive stars die as core-collapse supernovae, whose optical light emerges days after the implosion. Theory predicts that the initial collapse-driven shock, upon breaking through the star and dense circumstellar medium, emits a brief thermal flash of soft X-rays and ultraviolet. Yet these elusive first signals have remained largely undetected, owing to limited wide-field soft X-ray monitoring. Here we report the discovery of a soft X-ray flash, EP260321a, followed days later by a broad-lined supernova from an envelope-stripped progenitor. Its X-ray spectrum, best modeled with blackbody, establishes it as the long-sought archetypal shock breakout. The burst's duration and energetics place the breakout at a radius of 300 solar radii, tracing a dense surrounding shell and revealing abrupt mass ejection within the final month before collapse.

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arXiv2026

Unraveling the mysteries of supernovae with SKA+VLBI

Supernovae (SNe) drive cosmic chemical enrichment and shape galactic feedback, yet the link between progenitors and explosion outcomes remains poorly constrained because the earliest phases are rarely resolved. Radio emission traces synchrotron radiation where the fastest ejecta interact with the circumstellar medium (CSM), providing a uniquely penetrating probe of these phases. SKA-Mid phased into global VLBI will move from simple detections to routine interferometric imaging of nearby extragalactic SNe. Sub-$μ$Jy sensitivity and mas-scale SKA+VLBI imaging, complemented by visibility-domain model fitting for sub-beam radius measurements at 5-15 GHz will allow us to follow the expanding shocks of stripped-envelope SNe out to $\sim$25 Mpc, measure deceleration indices ($m$) and axial ratios to $\approx 5-10\%$, and directly test jet-assisted versus neutrino-driven explosion mechanisms. For interacting SNe (Type IIn/Ibn), SKA+VLBI will resolve clumpy and toroidal CSM on progenitor scales, constraining the timing and geometry of eruptive pre-explosion mass loss. Deep limits on Type Ia SNe will tightly restrict the allowed single-degenerate parameter space, while late-time imaging will search for nascent compact remnants and pulsar wind nebulae. In synergy with optical, X-ray and gravitational wave facilities, SKA+VLBI will turn nearby SNe into laboratories for time-resolved shock physics and progenitor mapping.

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arXiv2026

SN 2024igg: A Super-Chandrasekhar/03fg-like SN exhibiting C II-dominated spectra after explosion

We present and analyze photometric and spectroscopic observations of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2024igg, another ``super-Chandrasekhar'' (or 03fg-like) SN whose strong C II $\lambda6580$ feature was initially misidentified as H$α$, thereby constraining its progenitor system, explosion parameters, and physical scenario. SN 2024igg shows many characteristics in common with other 03fg-like objects, such as high ultraviolet flux, slowly declining light curves ($Δm_{15}(B)=0.90\pm0.08$ mag), low expansion velocities, along with strong and persistent C II absorption. Meanwhile, this SN exhibits some remarkable properties within this subgroup, including a moderately low optical luminosity ($M_{\rm max}(B)=-18.99\pm0.15$ mag), a short rise time less than 18.5 days, and strong C II $\lambda6580$. The bolometric analysis yields a $^{56}$Ni mass of $M_{\rm Ni}=0.547\pm0.082$ $M_{\rm \odot}$ and an ejecta mass of $1.54^{+0.22}_{-0.19}$ $M_{\rm \odot}$, marginally exceeding the Chandrasekhar mass. Our TARDIS result indicates that most of the features in the earliest spectrum could be attributed to C II, which is consistent with a model where a supernova explodes within a carbon-rich circumstellar medium (CSM). The CSM interaction would produce a density peak in the ejecta, offering a natural explanation for the slowly evolving line velocities near $-$8000 km s$^{-1}$. The CSM may stem from the debris of a secondary white dwarf in a white-dwarf merger or the envelope of an asymptotic giant branch star. Combined with the unshifted forbidden lines in the spectrum taken at $t\approx\ +$135 days, we suggest that SN 2024igg comes from a symmetric explosion on a secular timescale after the merger.

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arXiv2025

Science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission

The Einstein Probe (EP) is an interdisciplinary mission of time-domain and X-ray astronomy. Equipped with a wide-field lobster-eye X-ray focusing imager, EP will discover cosmic X-ray transients and monitor the X-ray variability of known sources in 0.5-4 keV, at a combination of detecting sensitivity and cadence that is not accessible to the previous and current wide-field monitoring missions. EP can perform quick characterisation of transients or outbursts with a Wolter-I X-ray telescope onboard. In this paper, the science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission are presented. EP is expected to enlarge the sample of previously known or predicted but rare types of transients with a wide range of timescales. Among them, fast extragalactic transients will be surveyed systematically in soft X-rays, which include γ-ray bursts and their variants, supernova shock breakouts, and the predicted X-ray transients associated with binary neutron star mergers. EP will detect X-ray tidal disruption events and outbursts from active galactic nuclei, possibly at an early phase of the flares for some. EP will monitor the variability and outbursts of X-rays from white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes in our and neighbouring galaxies at flux levels fainter than those detectable by the current instruments, and is expected to discover new objects. A large sample of stellar X-ray flares will also be detected and characterised. In the era of multi-messenger astronomy, EP has the potential of detecting the possible X-ray counterparts of gravitational wave events, neutrino sources, and ultra-high energy γ-ray and cosmic ray sources. EP is expected to help advance the studies of extreme objects/phenomena and their underlying physical processes revealed in the dynamic X-ray universe, as well as studies in other areas of X-ray astronomy.

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arXiv2024

Supernova Polarization Signals From the Interaction with a Dense Circumstellar Disk

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.

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arXiv2020

Giant X-ray and optical Bump in GRBs: evidence for fall-back accretion model

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 $F_ν\proptoν^{1/3}$ 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.

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arXiv2020

The Second Plateau in X-ray Afterglow Providing Additional Evidence for Rapidly Spinning Magnetars as the GRB Central Engine

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.

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arXiv2017

Optical Observations of LIGO Source GW 170817 by the Antarctic Survey Telescopes at Dome A, Antarctica

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.

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