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# The metamorphosis of SN 1998bw‡

## 1 Introduction

SN 1998bw was discovered by Galama et al. (1998a) in the BeppoSAX Wide Field Camera error box of GRB 980425 (Soffita et al. 1998, Pian et al. 1999) close to a spiral arm of the barred galaxy ESO 184–G82, by comparing two frames taken at the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) on Apr 28.4 and May 1.3 UT. Spectroscopic and photometric observations, both in the optical and in the near IR, started at ESO–La Silla immediately after the discovery, and showed that this object was profoundly different from all then known SNe (Lidman et al. 1998). The peculiar spectrum led to diverse classifications. A few days after its detection, the object was classified as a SN Ib (Sadler et al. 1998) and later as a peculiar SN Ic (Patat & Piemonte 1998a, Filippenko 1998) owing to the complete absence of H lines, the weakness of the Si II 6355 Å line and no clear He I detection in the optical spectra.

Its peculiar spectroscopic appearance (Galama et al. 1998b, Iwamoto et al. 1998), its unusually high radio luminosity at early phases (Kulkarni et al. 1998) and, in particular, the probable association with GRB 980425 through positional and temporal coincidence (Galama et al. 1998b, Pian et al. 1999) placed SN 1998bw at the center of discussion concerning the nature of Gamma Ray Bursts (Wheeler 2001).

Independent photometric and spectroscopic data sets have been presented by several authors, whose results will be discussed and compared with those presented here throughout the paper. Here we give only a brief account of the main results of these previous works.

The early light curve of SN 1998bw has shown that the object was unusually bright when compared to known SNe of Type Ib/c (M$`{}_{V}{}^{}`$19.2+5log h65, Galama et al. 1998b). The broad-band photometric observations by McKenzie & Schaefer (1999) taken during the intermediate phases (47–171 days after maximum brightness) revealed that the object settled on an exponential decay similar to that observed in other Ic. McKenzie & Schaefer first suggested that even in this case the light curve was powered by the radioactive decay of 56Co with some leakage of $`\gamma `$–rays. Finally, the late phase light curve was covered up to 500 days from the explosion by the observations of Sollerman et al. (2000). Their models achieved a fairly good reproduction of the data with the radioactive material well mixed in the ejecta and M(56Ni)$``$0.5 M.

The peculiar spectroscopic behavior of SN 1998bw around maximum light has been presented and discussed by Iwamoto et al. (1998), who identified the main spectral features as O I, Ca II, Si II and Fe II. The estimated expansion velocities were exceptionally high ($``$30,000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) and this caused a severe line blending. The evolution during the first months was unusually slow compared to known Ic, with the nebular spectra still retaining many of the features present during the photospheric phase (Patat et al. 2000, Stathakis et al. 2000). The late onset of the fully nebular phase has been interpreted as an indication for a large ejected mass (Stathakis et al. 2000) as it was predicted by the early light curve models (see below). During the intermediate phase, the emission lines were definitely broader than in known Type Ib/c supernovae and the simultaneous presence of iron–peak and $`\alpha `$-elements indicated unusual relative abundances or physical conditions in the SN ejecta (Patat & Piemonte 1998b, Patat et al. 2000). The late spectroscopy presented by Sollerman et al. (2000) showed that the tentative morphological classification of SN 1998bw as a Type Ic event was indeed appropriate. The main features have been identified as \[O I\], Ca II, Mg I and Na I D, the latter possibly contaminated by He I 5876 Å.

Photometric and spectroscopic modeling of the early phases and the possible connection with GRB 980425 have been discussed by Galama et al. (1998b), Iwamoto et al. (1998), Höflich, Wheeler & Wang (1999), Woosley, Eastman & Schmidt (1999) and Pian et al. (1999).

The symmetric models of the early spectra and light curve by Iwamoto et al. (1998) and Woosley et al. (1999) reached a similar conclusion: SN 1998bw was generated by an extremely energetic explosion of a $``$10 M C–O star, which ejected 0.5–0.7 M of 56Ni. This large amount of radioactive material, which is one order of magnitude larger than that estimated for known core-collapse SNe (Patat et al. 1994, Schmidt et al. 1994), is required to power the early light curve. In these models the explosion energy must be large to accelerate the ejected mass ($``$10 M) to the observed velocities and to make the light curve peak in only 19 days. Actually, in spherical symmetry, the light curve around maximum can be reproduced using different combinations of explosion energy and envelope mass. This degeneracy was resolved by Iwamoto et al. (1998) using velocity information and computing synthetic spectra for the various candidate models.

An alternative scenario was proposed by Höflich et al. (1999), who used less energetic asymmetric models and a suitable combination of viewing angle and degree of asymmetry. The required mass of 56Ni is in this case 0.2 M. This low mass of radioactive material, however, seems too low to explain the late emission of the supernova (Sollerman et al. 2000).

In this paper we report on the results of an extensive observational campaign carried out at ESO–La Silla, which covered the evolution of SN 1998bw from the discovery until 417 days after the Gamma Ray Burst detection. The paper is organized as follows.

In Sec. 2 we discuss the observations and reduction techniques for the optical and the near IR. The evolution of SN 1998bw around maximum light is discussed in Sec. 3, 4 and 5, which deal with low resolution spectroscopy, polarimetry and high resolution spectroscopy respectively. The He I detection in the near IR spectra is presented in Sec. 6 in which possible alternatives to the He I identification are also investigated. The description of SN 1998bw’s metamorphosis ends in Sec. 7, where we follow its evolution into the nebular phase. The late phase light curves are presented and compared with those of other SNe in Sec. 8. This section also presents the UVOIR bolometric light curve, which is compared to the model of Iwamoto et al. (1998). Finally, Sec. 9 summarizes our conclusions.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1  Optical Spectroscopy

Spectroscopic observations were obtained from early to late phases using the ESO 1.52m (Boller & Chivens spectrograph), ESO–Danish 1.54m (DFOSC), ESO-3.6m (EFOSC2) and the ESO–NTT (EMMI) telescopes. Exposure times ranged from 10 minutes near maximum light to several hours at late phases. The journal of spectroscopic observations is shown in Table 1.

The spectra were reduced using IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract to the National Science Foundation. packages. For some of the spectra taken at the ESO-Danish telescope, it was not possible to remove the fringing in the red since suitable flat fields were not available. This gives rise to the high frequency modulation of the spectra at wavelengths longer than 7500 Å.

Particular care was devoted to the extraction of the SN spectra to avoid contamination from the host galaxy background. Nevertheless, especially in the late phase spectra, the contribution from an underlying HII region could not be completely eliminated, and thus unresolved narrow lines (H$`\alpha `$, H$`\beta `$, \[O II\], \[O III\]) appear in the reduced spectra. We emphasize that these features do not show a coherent time evolution, but rather depend on seeing conditions and slit position. For this reason we conclude that they are not intrinsic to the SN. Finally, there is no evidence of continuum contamination from the parent galaxy.

Wavelength calibration was achieved by using arc spectra from He-Ne-Ar lamps, while the response curves were obtained via observations of spectrophotometric standard stars (Oke 1990; Hamuy et al. 1992). The accuracy of the absolute flux calibration was finally checked against the broad-band photometry and, when necessary, adjusted accordingly.

On May 6, 1998, two high resolution spectra of SN 1998bw, covering the region 3750–7650 Å, were obtained at the ESO-NTT using EMMI in the echelle mode, with a 7$`\mathrm{}`$ long and 2″. 0 wide slit (resolution 1 Å FWHM at 5900 Å, i.e. 50 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$). Order definition and extraction, sky subtraction and wavelength rebinning were achieved using the IRAF echelle reduction package. The orders were merged and the two exposures combined to a weighted mean to give the final spectrum which was eventually flux calibrated by comparison with a medium resolution spectrum of the SN taken the following day (see Table 1). A signal-to-noise ratio of about 15 in the region of the NaI D doublet was achieved.

### 2.2 IR Photometry and Spectroscopy

Near IR photometry of SN 1998bw was obtained at three epochs with SofI at the ESO NTT (see Table 2) through the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K`$ passbands (Bessell & Brett 1988). In order to allow for a proper sky subtraction, the target was observed using the jittering technique. The reductions were performed in a standard way within IRAF and the fluxes were estimated via plain aperture photometry, since at those early epochs the contribution from the host galaxy was negligible. The photometric errors were estimated including the nightly zero point variations, the aperture correction and the photon shot noise.

Near IR spectra of SN 1998bw were taken at the same epochs and with the same instrument used for the IR photometry. To cover the entire near IR region, two grisms were used: one for the range 0.95–1.64 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and one for the range 1.53–2.52 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. The observations were made with the 1″. 0 slit. The resulting resolving power, measured from the comparison xenon spectrum, was $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$600 for both grisms.

As is standard procedure for IR spectroscopy, the SN was observed at two positions along the slit and the telescope was nodded between these two positions once every few minutes. The highly variable night sky is then accurately removed by combining all spectra in the appropriate way. Atmospheric features have been removed by dividing the extracted spectra by the spectra of nearby bright stars that were observed soon after the SN: HD 135591 (May 18, Perryman et al. 1997), Hipparcos 106725 (June 6, Perryman et al. 1997), BS4620 and BS6823 (June 30, McGregory 1995). The stellar spectra often contain weak absorption lines from hydrogen (Paschen and Brackett series) and helium, which where removed before division. Wavelength calibration was achieved using comparison emission line spectra of xenon gas lamps and is accurate to 1–2 Å. The spectra obtained with the two different grisms were then combined into a single spectrum.

Relative flux calibration was achieved by multiplying the spectrum by a blackbody curve with a temperature appropriate for the star used to remove the atmospheric features (HD 135591, T=30,000 K; Hipparcos 106725, T=5800 K; BS4620, T=13,000 K, BS6823, T=25,000 K). Absolute flux calibration was performed by comparison to the broadband IR photometry at the same epochs.

### 2.3 Polarimetry

Spectropolarimetry of SN 1998bw was performed at two epochs (1998 May 4 and 1998 May 29) using the ESO 3.6m equipped with EFOSC2 in polarimetric mode (Patat 1999). A Wollaston prism was used with a focal plane mask to isolate the ordinary and extra-ordinary ray spectra of object and two sky positions; the separation of the two spectra is 20′′. A Half Wave plate was used to obtain spectra at four different position angles of 0. 0, 22. 5, 45. 0 and 67. 5. The B300 grism was used, giving a resolution of 10 Å over the wavelength range 3400–7550 Å. Table 1 provides a journal of the observations. The airmass was large at the time of the observations and the spectral region at $`\lambda <`$4000 Å is severely affected by differential atmospheric refraction. The HST polarized standard star HD 161056 (Turnshek et al. 1990) was observed on each night to check the polarization and position angle calibration.

The data were bias subtracted and the ordinary and extra-ordinary ray spectra of SN 1998bw were extracted with the local sky subtracted. Statistical errors were assigned to each extracted spectrum using the known properties of the detector (CCD ESO#40, Patat 1999). The data were then combined, following the procedure outlined by Tinbergen & Rutten (1992) and the total spectrum, linear polarization and position angle were computed using dedicated programs running in the ESO MIDAS package (see Walsh 1992). The polarization was binned into equal wavelength width bins to provide polarization errors per bin below 0.1% over the wavelength range 4000–7000 Å. For observations of HD 161056, the measured polarization in the V band was 4.3% at position angle (PA) 76, in satisfactory agreement with the standard value of 4.04% at PA=67, given that Turnshek et al. (1990) suggest it may be variable in polarization.

### 2.4 Optical Photometry

Late time optical broad band photometry of SN 1998bw in the Johnson–Cousins UBVRI photometric system (Bessell 1990) was obtained in the phase range 310–403 days from $`B`$ maximum. Table 3 shows the journal of the photometric observations, which were performed with the ESO-Dutch 0.9m telescope, equipped with a TEK coated $`512\times 512`$ pixels CCD (scale 0.44$`\mathrm{}`$/pixel), and with the ESO-3.6m telescope, equipped with EFOSC2 (Loral/Lesser $`2048\times 2048`$ pixels CCD, scale 0.16$`\mathrm{}`$/pixel). The SN is located on a spiral arm and superimposed on an HII region, which is clearly visible in Fig. 1. At late phases the background contribution is significant, and the SN magnitude cannot be measured using plain aperture photometry. Therefore, after the standard bias and flat-field corrections, magnitude measurements were obtained by means of the point-spread function fitting technique implemented in SNOoPY (Patat 1996), a package specifically designed for SN photometry within the IRAF environment.

Color terms for the two instruments have been computed using observations of standard fields (Landolt 1992). The SN magnitudes have been calibrated by means of relative photometry with respect to the local sequence defined by Vreeswijk et al. (2001, stars 1 to 10). The results of the late photometry here presented are in good agreement with those recently published by Sollerman et al. (2000).

## 3  Spectroscopic evolution around maximum light

The spectral behavior of SN 1998bw from day +7 to day +94 has already been discussed by Stathakis et al. (2000). The larger wavelength range and improved phase coverage of the data we are presenting here, allow us to analyze the early phases in more detail and to push the discussion further into the late evolutionary stages. For a discussion of an independent late phase data set see Sollerman et al. (2000).

The spectroscopic evolution of SN 1998bw around maximum light is presented in Fig. 3. Wavelengths are corrected to the parent galaxy rest frame, adopting $`v_{gal}=2532`$ $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, as measured from the narrow H$`\alpha `$ emission line (cf. Sec. 5). Phases are from B maximum, whose epoch (May 10, 1998 UT) was estimated from the photometric data presented by Galama et al. (1998b). It occurred 14.4 days after the detection of GRB 980425. We adopt these conventions throughout the paper.

The general appearance of the spectrum at maximum light is quite unique among SNe, even though it is somewhat reminiscent of SN 1997ef (Filippenko 1997c; Garnavich et al. in preparation) which has been modeled as a massive SN Ic event (Iwamoto et al. 2000; Mazzali, Iwamoto & Nomoto 2000). This appears clearly in Fig. 4, where the spectrum of SN 1998bw is compared to those of other Type I SNe.

Another striking feature is the redward shift with time of most of the spectral features, both in absorption and in emission. At early phases the apparent broad emission–like features do not result from discrete emission lines, but occur where absorption line optical depths are low and photons red–shifting in the expanding ejecta, as a result of absorption and scattering processes, have a higher probability of escaping (see for example Mazzali 2000; Pinto & Eastman 2000). Thus, while the shift of the absorption lines can be understood as the effect of the inward recession of the photosphere, that of the emission features requires a clearer knowledge of which lines are contributing to absorption, and how this changes with velocity (i.e. co-moving radius). The effect is also shown in Fig. 5, where the evolution of the Si II 6355 Å region has been plotted.

In these early phases when the velocity is high, line-blending is particularly severe. The modeling presented by Iwamoto et al. (1998) suggests that the main features are due to lines of Si II, O I, Ca II and Fe II. The time evolution of the expansion velocity at the photosphere, as deduced from the minimum of the absorption trough of the Si II 6355 Å line, is shown in Fig. 6. For comparison, the corresponding values measured for the Type Ia SN 1994D, the Type Ic SN 1994I222The data for SN 1994I are from the ESO Key Project on Supernovae Data Base (Turatto et al. 1990), hereafter ESO–KP. and the peculiar Type Ic SN 1997ef are also plotted. SN 1998bw shows a sudden break in the expansion velocity decline rate around day 15 and another at day 27. While changes in the slope are to be expected as a result of changes in optical depth at line center, the reasons for sudden changes are not clear. There is no doubt that the velocity decline rate changes significantly; what is less clear, in view of measurement uncertainties, is how suddenly they occurred.

The velocity deduced from the Si II 6355 Å line is about $`30,000`$ $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at day $``$7, and decreases to about 8000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at day $`+`$22. These values are exceptionally high, for any SN, as can be seen in Fig. 6. SN 1994I shows a trend which is very similar to that of SN 1998bw, although the velocities are systematically lower, while SN 1997ef deviates significantly after day 25 (Fig. 6). Phases for SN 1997ef are uncertain because maximum light was not recorded.

## 4  Polarimetry

In order to investigate any possible asphericity in the explosion of SN 1998bw, spectro–polarimetry measurements were performed at two epochs (day $``$7 and day +10, see Tab. 1). The polarization averaged over the range 4000–7000 Å was 0.7% and 0.5% at the two epochs respectively. Figure 2 shows the total spectrum (raw, not flux calibrated), the polarization binned into 200 channel bins and the position angle of the polarization vector projected on the sky at both epochs. The formal errors per bin are about 0.04% but the error on the polarization binned over the optical range is 0.1% given that the measurements were not of high photometric quality and the discrepancy on the measurement of the polarized standard. It appears that the polarization spectrum at day $``$7 may have a significant increase to the red which is not in evidence at the later epoch. In terms of the integrated polarization over the 4000–7000 Å range, there may be a marginal change in the polarization between the two epochs, but no great significance is attached to this result.

The interstellar polarization in the direction of the host galaxy can be estimated by the measurement of stellar polarization along a nearby sight line. Kay et al. (1998) measured the linear polarization of HD 184100 at 0.75% in PA 176.5. Correcting the linear polarization results by this value of interstellar polarization results in 0.6% at PA 80 and 0.4% at 67 at day $``$7 and +10 respectively. The polarization value is not very different from the value of 0.53% measured by Kay et al. (1998) at day $``$42 and is most probably intrinsic to the SN, although a dusty medium in the SN parent galaxy cannot be ruled out. However the position angles differ from the Kay et al. value of 49, although the errors on these earlier determinations are larger (at least 5). Despite its association with a $`\gamma `$–ray burst, these polarization values are similar to those reported for other core-collapse SNe (Wang et al. 1996).

The small degree of polarization at optical wavelengths can be explained in terms of a moderate departure from sphericity (axial ratio $`<`$2:1, Höflich 1995, Höflich et al. 1999) either in the photosphere or in the outer scattering envelope when the line-of- sight is not coincident with an axis of symmetry. Unfortunately, it is not possible from polarization measurements alone to decode both the shape of the object and the viewing angle and therefore the small polarization values reported here could indicate large departures from sphericity but viewed close to an axis of symmetry, or small departures viewed well away from the symmetry axis. Net polarization could also result from a spherical envelope in which, as a result of large scale clumping, one hemisphere had a surface brightness different from that of the other hemisphere. Delayed light echoes could also be responsible for the observed polarization, provided that the time delay is comparable to the time scale of the SN luminosity variation.

We note that no polarization, neither circular nor linear, was detected in the radio and this has been interpreted as the signature of a spherically symmetric blast wave (Kulkarni et al. 1998). This apparent discrepancy might suggest that the radio and the optical radiation were generated in regions of different geometry.

## 5  High Resolution Spectroscopy

To search for possible narrow emission lines produced in the circumstellar environment of the progenitor and for interstellar absorption features, we obtained high resolution spectra of SN 1998bw around maximum brightness. With the exception of a narrow H$`\alpha `$ emission line centered at 2532 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and probably arising from the underlying HII region (see also Sec. 2.1 and Tinney et al. 1998), neither the usual NaI D absorption lines, which would signal intervening interstellar dust, nor narrow emission lines were detected. However, the signal-to-noise ratio we achieved ($`SNR20`$ at H$`\alpha `$ and $`15`$ at NaI D) is insufficient to exclude the presence of lines, both in emission and absorption, with EW$`0.2`$ Å. Using the relation recently calibrated by Benetti et al. (in preparation) and assuming that the total EW of the NaI D doublet is EW$``$ 0.4 Å, one can estimate an upper limit for the extinction, $`A_V`$0.2. There are two values of $`A_V`$ available in the literature, i.e. $`A_V`$=0.05 (Burstein & Heiles 1982) and $`A_V`$=0.2 (Schlegel, Finkbeiner & Davis 1998). Both estimates are compatible with our upper limit, but we will assume $`A_V`$=0.2 throughout this paper due to its more recent determination from COBE/DIRBE and IRAS/ISSA maps.

## 6  IR Spectra: Helium and Other Elements

The IR spectra are plotted in Fig. 7. The most prominent feature is the broad emission at 1.08 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, which has an associated P-Cygni structure with a hint of more than one component in absorption. The main component of the emission and the absorption minimum at day +8 strongly suggest that this feature is due to He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ with a velocity of 18,300$`\pm `$700 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. There is nevertheless the possibility that transitions from other ions are affecting this profile. The absorption does not seem to shift red-wards with time as shown in the upper panel of Fig. 8. This is to be expected if the helium were confined to an outer higher velocity layer either optically thick or thin but restricted to a narrow velocity range. A more extended layer which had become optically thin on or before the date of the first IR spectrum could also in principle give rise to this constancy of velocity. The first interpretation is reinforced by the fact that at the same phase (i.e. 22.4 days after the explosion), Si II 6355 Å had a much smaller velocity ($`12,000`$ $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) which may more closely indicate the photospheric velocity, at least up to day $`+22`$ (see Fig. 6). Since the color temperature of the envelope at those phases is not sufficiently high to radiatively or collisionally excite the required levels of He I, one may conclude that excitation is caused by non–thermal electrons produced by $`\gamma `$-rays coming from the radioactive decay of 56Co. This was predicted by Chugai (1987) for SN 1987A, and shown to be effective by Graham (1988), Lucy (1991) and Mazzali & Lucy (1998) in various SNe, after Harkness et al. (1987) had identified He I lines by postulating large departures from LTE to explain the abnormal strengths.

He I has another transition (singlet series) in the near IR, namely at 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ ($`2s^1S2p^1P^0`$). Careful inspection shows that in all three spectra a weak broad P–Cygni feature is present at this wavelength (see Fig. 7). While this confirms the presence of He I in the spectra, because this spectral region is affected by strong telluric absorption, any line strength measurements should be treated with some caution. In the lower panel of Fig. 8 the region centered on 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ is plotted for day +51, i.e. when this feature appears to be more pronounced. Even though the signal–to–noise is poor, a P–Cygni profile is visible and from the minimum of the absorption through an expansion velocity of 13,000 $`\pm `$ 2000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is deduced, while the measured intensity ratio He I 1.083/He I 2.058 is about 30.

Since these He I lines show P–Cygni profiles associated with strong continuum radiation, it is instructive to follow the qualitative results obtained by an elementary SN model in the Sobolev approximation (see for example Jeffery & Branch 1990). In that framework, the absolute emission line intensity depends not only on the line optical depth, but it is also proportional to the photospheric continuum intensity at the line wavelength. Thus it is not surprising that the emission component of He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ is much greater than that of He I 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. There is in fact roughly a factor 10 difference in the continuum flux at the two wavelengths, and therefore the measured intensity ratio translates into an equivalent width ratio $`EW(HeI1.083)/EW(HeI2.058)`$3. The theoretical work by Lucy (1991) on the non–thermal excitation of helium in Type Ib SNe predicts a ratio close to one for these two He I features, whereas the ratio between the A–values is 5.2 (Martin 1987).

An additional complicating aspect to consider is that the He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line originates from the metastable triplet ground state which can give rise to resonance scattering not expected for the He I 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line, whose lower level is metastable but whose upper level can be depopulated by an allowed transition to the singlet ground state. Moreover, the intensities of the two lines depend also on the fraction $`ϵ`$ of collisional to total depopulations of the upper level of the transition. Hence, if one takes also into account that the optical depths of the two lines can be different, it is not surprising that the observed line ratio deviates from the expectations based on Einstein coefficients alone.

We note that the IR spectra of SN 1987A have shown a strong He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line starting at day 110 (Meikle et al. 1989), from which an expansion velocity of 5000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ was deduced. The He I 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line was also detected with an expansion velocity of 1500 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Meikle et al. (1989) suggested that this is probably due to the fact that He I 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ was optically thin. For SN 1987A the ratio He I 1.083/He I 2.058 in the phase range 110–349 days ranged from 23 to 50. In particular, on day 112 it was about 35; once one has taken into account the different continuum level at the two wavelengths, this turns into an equivalent width ratio of about 6.

Very few other SNe have been observed in the 2 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ region. The Type II SN 1995ad and Type Ic SN 1997B have both shown a strong He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ feature without any evidence of the He I 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line (Clocchiatti et al. 2001). He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ was identified also in the near IR spectra of the Type IIn SN 1998S (Gerardy et al. 2000) and in that case, even though very faint, the He I 2.058 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line was detected at 95 days after $`V`$ maximum.

One possible difficulty with the identification of the 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ feature as He I comes from the apparent absence of the He I lines in the optical spectra at comparable phases. In Fig. 9 we plot the optical spectra at day +6, +29 and +52, i.e. as close in time as possible to the IR spectra. At all three epochs, the spectrum is predominantly an absorption spectrum. Some of the strongest features tentatively identified using spectral synthesis are marked (top). We also marked the expected position of the He I absorption lines if they all had a blue-shift of 18,300 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (bottom). The strongest optical line of He I should be 5876 Å, but this is blended with Na I D. He I 5876 Å is clearly not present as a distinct individual feature at 18300 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. There is no unambiguous sign of any other possible He I optical lines. This does not necessarily contradict the identification of the 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ feature as He I, because the optical lines can be suppressed relative to the IR ones if non-thermal excitation is at work (Mazzali & Lucy 1998). The large expansion velocity of SN 1998bw might also dictate greater blending effects in the optical region where the number of lines per unit wavelength is much larger than in the IR.

The optical He I lines are at least weaker than in the Type Ic SN 1994I. This SN also showed the He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line (Filippenko et al. 1995) and possibly traces of He I contamination in the optical (Clocchiatti et al. 1996). Millard et al. (1999) have modeled SN 1994I’s spectra and could fit the feature near 1.08$`\mu m`$ using a blend of CI 1.0695 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and He I 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, the latter being detached at 18,000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This velocity is similar to what is seen in SN 1998bw. However, they were able to obtain an alternative fit using only Si I lines. Another possibility is that the feature at 1.08$`\mu m`$ is due to Mg II 1.091$`\mu m`$, as suggested by Mazzali & Lucy (1998) for the Type Ia SN 1994D.

Determining the amount of He in the ejecta is very important for constraining the nature of the progenitor and its evolutionary stage at the time of the explosion. Detailed spectral modeling, including non–thermal effects, is necessary for this purpose. Inclusion of helium in the exploding progenitor object may even affect our quantitative conclusions concerning the ejected mass, mass of radioactive material, kinetic energy and mixing of the ejecta.

As the SN ages the 1.083 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ emission feature develops a second, redder component (cf. Fig. 7). Possible identifications are O I 1.129 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and Na I 1.138, 1.140 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. The latter seems to be possible since its lower level is the upper level of the NaI D line transition which would be well populated by resonance scattering. The Na I identification implies a velocity close to that of Si II 6355 Å at the same phase and consistent with the Na I D line absorption. The presence of O I 7771 Å in the optical is only a weak argument in favor of the O I 1.129 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ identification, since this latter line originates from a higher level.

## 7  Entering the Nebular Phase

The spectral evolution of SN 1998bw towards and during the nebular phase is presented in Fig. 10, which shows all our spectra taken between day +29 and day +376. The transition from an absorption to an emission spectrum is slow and subtle and is marked by a decrease in the continuum.

While the evolution of SN 1998bw in the range 5500–9000 Å is similar to that of SN Ic events such as SN 1987M (Filippenko et al. 1990), the expansion velocities are larger and the region between 4000 and 5500 Å is dominated (at least until about day +200) by a wide bump to which Fe II transitions probably contribute significantly. The spectroscopic differences appear clearly in Fig. 11, where SN 1998bw is compared to the Type Ia SN 1992A, the Type Ib SN 1996N and the Type Ic SN 1996aq. From Fig. 11 the late nebular spectrum of SN 1998bw appears to mostly resemble a Type Ic SN, in this case SN 1996aq. Mg I\] 4571 Å and \[O I\] 6300 Å are present in both cases but not in the Type Ia SN 1992A. SNe Ia in general show strong \[Fe II\] and \[Fe III\] emission features not apparent in the same form in the two Type Ic SNe. In fact, the strongest spectral resemblance of SN 1998bw at nebular phases is to the peculiar SN 1985F and the Type Ic SN 1987M (Filippenko et al. 1990). Qualitatively the appearance of Mg I and O I is consistent with what is expected from the nucleosynthesis model of Iwamoto et al. (1998), and their absence in models of Type Ia proposed by Nomoto et al. (1997).

All these facts support the general idea that SN 1998bw is related to SNe Ib/c. It might be regarded as an extreme case among these objects, having large kinetic energy, ejecta mass and ejected mass of synthesized 56Ni, while SN 1997ef could represent a less extreme case closer in properties to the known SNe Ic (see also Iwamoto et al. 2000; Mazzali et al. 2000; Stathakis et al. 2000, Branch 2001).

At late epochs the most prominent spectral feature is the \[O I\] 6300,6364 Å doublet. Fig. 12 (upper and central panel) reveals that this line has a complex profile, showing an apparently blended emission component blue shifted by approximately 2300 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ with respect to the 6300 Å doublet component. It is present at 201 and 376 days, and a similar feature appears to be present in the spectra of SN 1996N at comparable phases. This therefore points to a common origin in the form of an as yet unidentified line (centered at $``$6250 Å), or a similar structure (a clump?) in the line emitting region.

The \[O I\] 6300 Å line profiles are sharply peaked in the nebular phase, as are those of Mg I\] 4571 Å albeit a little less clearly. Uniform emission throughout the envelope should produce a parabolic profile, and therefore we can conclude that stronger emission is occurring at lower velocities in regions closer to the center (see also Maeda et al. 2000). A similar effect is apparent in other SNe such as the Type Ic SN 1987M and peculiar SN 1985F (Filippenko et al. 1990) where it is also evident in emission lines of other ionic species.

Since Mg I\] 4571 Å seems to be the only single line in the spectrum with a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio, it is of some interest to study its behavior with time (see Fig. 13, right panel). At early stages prior to 100 days the apparent emission feature must be dominated by some as yet unidentified feature because the peak is displaced bluewards by 3500 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and gradually reaches the rest wavelength of Mg I\] 4571 Å at day 125. From this phase onwards there is an excess in the blue wing causing an asymmetry, which becomes more marked as time passes by (see also Fig. 10). One explanation for this blue excess after day 201 is that it is the remnant of the unknown feature that dominated at early phases. It cannot be caused by the presence of Mg I\] 4562 Å which only reaches strengths comparable to that of Mg I\] 4571 Å at densities lower than a few 104 cm-3 and in any case the separation is too small. A more interesting and plausible explanation for this blue component of Mg I\] 4571 Å is that it is the counterpart of the blue component of \[O I\] 6300 Å mentioned above. The velocities and the profiles are similar (Fig. 12, lower panel). That being so, it suggests that we are seeing two components of the oxygen and magnesium mass distribution in the envelope.

We estimated the expansion velocity of the Mg nebula fitting the Mg I\] 4571 Å line profile. The results are plotted in the upper panel of Fig. 14. We emphasize that, especially at very late phases, the fitting is not satisfactory and the values plotted are only indicative. A comparison with other SNe of similar Type is interesting. The FWHM of Mg I\] 4571 Å in the latest spectra of the Type Ib SN 1983N (225 days, Gaskell et al. 1986) and the Type Ic SN 1996aq (270 days) was about 5000$`\pm `$300 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and 7000$`\pm `$800 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ respectively. A similar value (6100 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) was reported by Sollerman et al. (1998) for the Type Ib SN 1996N at about 220 days. These values are to be compared with 9800$`\pm `$500 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ measured for the same line in SN 1998bw at 201 days past maximum. However, this value reduces to 7700$`\pm `$800 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ if we determine the velocity using only the red half of the profile. Thus it seems that when account is taken of the somewhat different phases at which measurements were made for these SNe, not very significant differences are noticeable.

A similar analysis is more complicated for the \[O I\] doublet, both because of its complex profile (cf. Fig. 12) and a strong contamination by the Si II 6355 Å line on the red wing at phases earlier than 3 months (see Fig. 13, left panel). We tried to estimate the expansion velocity of the O I nebula using the blue wing of the observed profile and hence computing the FWHM of the 6300 Å component alone. The results are plotted in the upper panel of Fig. 14, which shows that the velocities are similar to those computed from Mg I\].

Finally, we have measured the flux of the Mg I\] and \[O I\] lines to look for possible deviations from exponential decay. The results are plotted in the lower panel of Fig. 14, where it appears clearly that at late phases the flux in these lines decreases exponentially. The measured decline rates are 0.0185 and 0.0170 mag day-1 for the two features, respectively. These values are quite similar to those measured for the broad band photometry (cf. Sec. 8). It should be noted here that Si II 6355 Å line emission probably dominates the \[O I\] 6300,6364 Å lines up to day 94 although there is the possibility that if \[O I\] is optically thick and the expansion velocities significantly exceed the doublet separation, most of the \[O I\] photons would be redshifted and confused with those belonging to the Si II 6355 Å transition.

The unidentified blue–shifted component of Mg I\] will clearly dominate the photometry of this feature prior to day 125 and still contribute afterwards. The fact that Mg I\] appears to reach the exponential decay line before \[O I\] (cf. Fig. 14, lower panel) could be due to the nature of these blending effects. Also other considerations may be important such as the fact that the critical density for Mg I\] is 3 orders of magnitude higher than that for \[O I\] and the expanding envelope results in the former critical density being reached well before the latter. Also, since Mg I has a much lower ionization energy than O I, emission of these different lines may be coming from different regions. Finally models of massive stars (Woosley, Langer & Weaver 1995) show that magnesium occupies a more confined radial distribution than oxygen. This is the case not only for extremely massive stars but also for 13–15 $`M_{}`$ stars (cf. Fig. 1 of Nomoto et al. 1995). In both circumstances, the region where O exists without Mg is mostly He–rich, the He mass fraction being $``$0.1.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to make a similar analysis for the presumed Fe lines and particularly the feature near 5215 Å. In fact even the identification of this feature is in doubt. One promising possibility is that it is due to the \[Fe II\] multiplet 19 with additional components due to the \[Fe II\] multiplets 16,17,18. \[Fe II\] multiplet 6 may then contribute to the blend near Mg I\] 4571 Å. Nevertheless, there is no unequivocal evidence for the presence of other multiplets of \[Fe II\]. Another possibility suggested by Filippenko et al. (1990) for SN 1985F and SN 1987M is a combination of Fe II multiplets 35,42,49. Contributions from \[Fe III\] multiplet 1 seems a more remote possibility because some important lines are not present. What we can state here is that the most prominent feature, the one at 5215 Å, declines faster than those of Mg I\] and \[O I\]. The flux measurement is strongly hampered by the uncertain position of the continuum and the possible presence of another feature in the red wing (see Fig. 10). To reduce the effect of these problems we computed the fluxes by integrating the spectra in the range 5080–5680 Å and crudely assuming the continuum level. To estimate the uncertainty involved we chose the continuum at two extreme positions. One is the average value in the range 5680–5700 Å, where the flux drops to a minimum value, and the other is the level used in computing the flux of the Mg I\] 4571 Å measurements.

The results are shown in the lower panel of Fig. 14, where the upper and lower extremes of the error bars represent the values obtained using the low and high continuum respectively. The conclusion is that the 5215 Å feature fades at a rate of 0.021$`\pm `$0.001 mag day-1, i.e. 0.0025$`\pm `$0.001 and 0.004$`\pm `$0.001 mag day-1 faster than \[O I\] and Mg I\] respectively. The faster decline of 5215 Å is also clearly visible, if one compares its intensity with the one of the adjacent Mg I\] 4571 Å after normalization to its peak (see Fig. 15). This fact might also suggest that the 5215 Å feature does not trace the bulk of the Fe in the envelope since one would expect the abundance of Fe to be increasing with time as a result of the radioactive decay of 56Co. This might be partially compensated by the decreasing temperature and density of the ejecta.

Another point concerns the expansion velocity deduced from this feature. Again the measured values are quite uncertain, but at day 201 the FWHM velocity is about 10,900 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and hence higher than those estimated for Mg I\] 4571 Å (9800 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) and \[O I\] 6300,6364 Å (7600 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$). However, if the 5215 Å feature results from a blend of multiplet lines of whichever type, this would most certainly lead to an overestimate of the expansion velocity since the separation of individual lines of the most likely multiplets is of the order of thousands of $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Here we only note that recent Chandra X–ray observations of Cassiopeia A, which is consistent with the remnant of a massive star explosion (e.g. Fesen et al. 1987), show that significant amounts of Fe are present at high velocities, comparable to those of lighter elements such as oxygen (Hughes et al. 2000). This implies that a relevant fraction of the material synthesized in the core has mixed into the outer regions during the SN explosion.

Finally, we have compared SN 1998bw with the Type IIb SN 1993J and the Type Ib SN 1996N at about one year after maximum light (Fig. 16). The resemblance of the three objects is evident. In particular, SN 1993J and SN 1998bw are strikingly similar, the only deviation being the broad H$`\alpha `$, which is missing in SN 1998bw; apart from this, line ratios and expansion velocities are definitely comparable. SN 1996N also has very similar line widths, while the luminosity ratio between \[O I\] and all other features is smaller and the blue \[Fe II\] bump is less pronounced.

Despite the great peculiarity shown in the early phases, at one year after maximum SN 1998bw is spectroscopically indistinguishable from known Type Ib’s. Even the high expansion velocities measured during the first six months have slowed down to the values which are typical for other Type Ib SNe ($``$5000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$). But the much higher ejected mass estimated by the models and the high luminosity, which persists also at these advanced phases (cf. next section), confirm that this event was hyper–energetic.

## 8  Broad Band and Bolometric Light Curves

The photometric data presented in this paper and those published by Galama et al. (1998b), McKenzie & Schaefer (1999) and Sollerman et al. (2000) can be collected in a unique data set to study the late phase behavior of the light curves, as shown in Fig. 17. Fig. 17 shows that the SN luminosity follows an exponential luminosity decline up to about 300 days after maximum light, while a clear flattening is present for the latest observed epochs, especially in the $`V`$ band. This is clearly shown in Tab. 4, where we have reported the decay rates computed via linear least squares fit to the data in the two phase ranges 40–330 and 300–490 days from B maximum. The values for the earliest data are consistent, within the estimated errors, with those computed by McKenzie & Schaefer (1999) using data in the range 47–171 days ($`\gamma _B=0.0141\pm 0.0002`$, $`\gamma _V=0.0184\pm 0.0002`$, $`\gamma _I=0.0181\pm 0.0002\mathrm{mag}\mathrm{day}^1`$).

In any case, these slopes deviate clearly from the values expected from the $`{}_{}{}^{56}\mathrm{Co}^{56}`$Fe radioactive decay in the case of complete $`\gamma `$-ray trapping (0.0098 mag day-1), as already noticed by McKenzie & Schaefer (1999). On the other hand, the measured slopes are similar to those reported by Sollerman et al. (1998) for the Type Ib SN 1996N in the phase range 180–340 days ($`\gamma _V=0.0167\pm 0.0023`$, $`\gamma _R=0.0172\pm 0.0010`$, $`\gamma _I=0.0193\pm 0.0024\mathrm{mag}\mathrm{day}^1`$). These values are even higher than those typical for the late phase data of Type Ia SNe. If 56Co decay is powering the late light curve of SN 1998bw, there must be a fairly strong leakage in the $`\gamma `$–ray deposition, as for SN 1996N (Sollerman et al. 1998). Interestingly, fast and slow decliners seem to exist within the Type Ic class, as pointed out by Clocchiatti & Wheeler (1997). The range spanned by late phase decline rates of SNe Ib/c is quite broad: $`\gamma _B`$ ranges from 0.006 (SN 1990B, Piemonte 2001) to 0.022 mag day-1 (SN 1990I, ESO–KP data base). At later phases ($`t`$300 days) a clear flattening of the light curve is visible in all passbands, even though the conclusion about $`B`$ band is somewhat hampered by the lack of data at phases later than 403 days. The decline rate variation is 0.0020$`\pm `$0.0013, 0.0079$`\pm `$0.0010, 0.0036$`\pm `$0.0020 and 0.0043$`\pm `$0.0013 mag day-1 in $`B`$, $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I`$ respectively.

In Fig. 18, we present the UVOIR bolometric light curve of SN 1998bw, which was constructed using all available data by integrating the flux in the optical and near IR photometric bands. Magnitudes were converted to fluxes using the calibrations of Bessell (1979) and Wilson et al. (1972). The measured fluxes were then transformed to luminosities by adopting a distance modulus $`\mu =32.89`$ ($`d=37.8`$ Mpc; $`H_0=65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$), and an extinction A$`{}_{V}{}^{}=0.2`$. We emphasize that JHK photometry is available only for the early phases and that its contribution to the total flux is quite significant, ranging from $`25\%`$ on day 22.4 (from GRB) to $`35\%`$ on day 65.4. For later epochs we simply assume that the fractional IR contribution remained constant at $`35\%`$ as for the last measurement. Clearly this is a major source of uncertainty for the late UVOIR bolometric light curve.

After the maximum peak, where the SN reaches a luminosity of $`10^{43}`$ erg s-1, the light curve settles on the exponential decay tail starting with day +40, with a decline rate $`\gamma `$=0.0176$`\pm `$0.0002 mag day-1. Then, after day +300, the bolometric light curve appears to flatten, gradually deviating from the slope defined by the data in the range 40–200 days (dotted line) so that at +490 days the difference is about 1.4 mag, which is well outside the error bars (cf. Fig. 18). These uncertainties were estimated taking into account the presence of possible contamination from the unresolved underlying HII region, whose contribution is difficult to subtract (see below).

The comparison of the bolometric light curve of SN 1998bw with the model of Iwamoto et al. (1998) is also presented in Fig. 18. Although the early phases (t$``$ 60 days) are well reproduced, the observed tail deviates from the theoretical prediction. The model must be highly energetic to accommodate the early light curve and spectra. Therefore at later phases $`\gamma `$–rays should escape quite efficiently resulting in a rapid decline. Eventually most $`\gamma `$-rays escape from the ejecta, and only positrons from the 56Co decay contribute to the light curve (the masses of 57Co and 44Ti in the model are small). Indeed, after day $``$200 the calculated decline becomes slower, and it approaches the decay rate of 56Co around day 400 (Iwamoto et al. 1998; Nakamura et al. 1999, 2000a,b).

Nomoto et al. (2000) and Nakamura et al. (2000b) have shown that, while the highly energetic model can explain the early light curve, a less energetic model is in better agreement with the late light curve. They suggest that such a behavior reflects some non–spherical effects in the ejecta structure, although the well mixed models of Sollerman et al. (2000) do not require asymmetries for a reasonable match to the light curves, neither do those of Chugai (2000).

Jeffery’s (1999) ad–hoc model, although based on a rather different model of the ejecta, also predicts that the pure exponential phase should end after about day 400, and that the light curve should slowly approach the 56Co decay slope when eventually only the positrons are deposited (provided that other, less abundant radioactive species remain unimportant and interaction with circumstellar material does not occur). In this respect it is interesting to note that a least squares fit to the bolometric light curve in the phase range 376–490 days gives a slope $`\gamma =0.009\pm 0.001`$ mag day-1, which would suggest that SN 1998bw finally settled on the 56Co decay. Nevertheless a possible alternative is that the flattening is due to the unaccounted presence of other sources within the ground–based point spread function. In order to reproduce the observed behavior, the integrated magnitude of the contaminating objects must be V$``$22.6. Even though recent HST–STIS observations (Fynbo et al. 2000) have shown that several objects are present within a radius of 0″. 5 from the SN location (Fig. 1), there is no evidence for such a relatively bright source. Hence the conclusion is that the observed flattening is, at least to some extent, intrinsic. However, this can only be confirmed by follow–up observations by HST. On the other hand, the effects of possible freeze–out, ejecta–wind interaction or even faint echoes should not be overlooked.

As a matter of fact, no signs of ejecta–wind interaction are found in the late phase spectra of SN 1998bw (see also Sollerman et al. 2000). Nevertheless, some circumstellar material is expected to be present. All models for SNe Ic assume that the progenitor stars undergo intense mass-loss and lose their H–He envelopes to become bare CO cores before they explode. Thus interaction should be expected at some stage. Future observations will be fundamental to investigate the circumstellar environment and the real onset of ejecta-wind interaction.

In Fig. 19 the absolute V light curve of SN 1998bw is presented, and compared with the light curves of some Type II (1987A, 1979C), IIb (1993J), Ia (1991T, 1992A), Ib (1990I) and Ic (1992ar, 1994I) SNe. For SN 1998bw a distance modulus $`\mu =32.89`$ while the interstellar extinction is assumed to be $`A_V=0.2`$ mag (cf. Sec. 5). It is clear that the light curve alone would not allow one to classify this object as a SN Ib/c, nor indeed to distinguish it from thermonuclear SNe.

Even though the internal extinction for SN 1994I is very uncertain (here we adopted $`A_V=1.2`$), SN 1998bw was much brighter and had a different light curve shape. Unfortunately, late phase data for SN 1994I are not available. However, a comparison is possible with the Type Ib SN 1990I. Maximum light was not covered by the observations, but the light curve of SN 1990I between day +40 and day +120 is very similar to that of SN 1998bw, although about 0.5 magnitudes fainter. After that the luminosity decay rate of SN 1990I was larger than that of SN 1998bw. Later on the over luminosity of this SN becomes more pronounced. At 350 days the Type IIb SN 1993J is 1.4 magnitudes fainter then SN 1998bw (see Fig. 19). SN 1996N is even less luminous as shown by Sollerman et al. (1998), even though the distance modulus, reddening and epoch of maximum are rather uncertain. One year after the explosion this SN is about 3 magnitudes fainter than SN 1998bw.

As discussed before, we believe that the late time light curve of SN 1998bw is powered by the radioactive decay of 56Co into 56Fe and therefore the late luminosity can be used to constrain the 56Ni mass ejected by the explosion. The decay of 56Co $``$ 56Fe releases energy through the $`\gamma `$-ray channel in 81% of the cases, while the remaining fraction goes into positrons, which annihilate with electrons producing $`\gamma `$-rays (cf. Colgate & McKee 1969). The positron kinetic energy released before the annihilation accounts for 3.5% of the total 56Co decay energy (Arnett 1979, Woosley, Pinto & Hartmann 1989).

In the case of SN 1998bw, since the slope of the late light curve prior to 300 days is steeper than the expected input energy from 56Co decay, we can assume that in this phase range some fraction of the $`\gamma `$-rays escapes thermalization. At later epochs ($`t>`$400 days) the envelope becomes completely transparent to $`\gamma `$-rays whereupon in the case of complete deposition of positron kinetic energy (Axelrod 1980), the late light curve settles on the 56Co decay line.

Making the crude assumption that the phase of complete escape of $`\gamma `$–rays and complete deposition of positrons was reached after 400 days and assuming a rate of 56Co decay energy production of $`s`$=6.78$`\times `$109 erg g-1 s-1 (Sutherland & Wheeler 1984) and a half–life time of 77.12 days (Arnett 1996), we can estimate the mass of $`M(^{56}\mathrm{Ni})`$ using the following equation:

$$M(^{56}\mathrm{Ni})\frac{\mathrm{L}_{43}(\mathrm{t})}{1.35\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{t}/111.26}\times 0.035}\mathrm{M}_{}$$
(1)
where $`L_{43}(t)`$ is the bolometric luminosity in $`10^{43}`$ erg s-1, $`t`$ is expressed in days from the explosion and the factor 0.035 is the fraction of total 56Co decay energy deposited by positrons. If we use the four available measurements at $`t>`$ 400 days (Sollerman et al. 2000; this work) and average the results, we get $`M(^{56}\mathrm{Ni})1.0_{0.2}^{+0.5}\mathrm{M}_{}`$. The errors are by far dominated by the uncertainties in the bolometric luminosities and the estimate depends on our assumption on the IR contribution at these late phases.

We note that the model by Nakamura et al. (2000b) estimated the mass of 56Ni to be 0.4 M from the early light curve modeling. This value is not in contradiction with what is found here if the SN envelope is not completely transparent to $`\gamma `$–rays at $`t>`$ 400 days. Moreover, it must be noted that Nakamura et al. (2000b) have suggested that positron contribution is not yet dominant in powering the light curve at the phases covered by the last available observations.

## 9  Discussion and Conclusions

As we have shown, SN 1998bw was exceptional in many respects, even beyond its possible and probable connection with GRB 980425. The luminosity at maximum was comparable to that of a SN Ia but its spectral appearance was completely different from that class of objects. On the other hand, while the Type Ic classification at maximum holds by definition (no H or He, weak Si II), SN 1998bw had little in common with objects previously classified as Type Ib or Ic (cf. also Stathakis et al. 2000), at least around maximum. Among all studied Type Ib/c SNe, only SN 1992ar might have been brighter than SN 1998bw (Clocchiatti et al. 2000a). The only known SN which bear some spectroscopic resemblance to this unusual object are SN 1997ef (Garnavich et al. 1997) and SN 1998ey (Garnavich, Jha & Kirshner 1998), the former also being possibly associated with a GRB (Wang et al. 1998). Even so, SN 1997ef was fainter than SN 1998bw, and probably produced much less 56Ni than SN 1998bw (Iwamoto et al. 1998, 2000). It must be mentioned here that SN 1997cy, also conceivably but by no means certainly associated with a GRB (Woosley et al. 1999, Germany et al. 2000), was extremely bright, probably the brightest SN ever observed, but it has shown signs of ejecta–CSM interaction at all epochs (Turatto et al. 2000).

The deviation from any known Type Ib SN behavior is also noticeable in the early nebular phase, when the spectrum of SN 1998bw is probably dominated by Fe blends in the blue and by O and Ca in the red, as already pointed out by Patat and Piemonte (1998b). A somewhat similar behavior was noticed in SN 1993R by Ruiz-Lapuente (see Filippenko 1997a) and in SN 1990aj by Piemonte (2001).

The high velocities and the large intrinsic luminosity suggest that SN 1998bw was produced by an extremely energetic explosion. All published models reach this conclusion, even if the explosion energy, the progenitor mass and ejected $`{}_{}{}^{56}\mathrm{Ni}`$ mass, span quite a wide range (Iwamoto et al. 1998, Höflich et al. 1999, Woosley et al. 1999, Nakamura et al. 2000b). This range arises because different degrees of asymmetry and beaming have been used. The exceptionally high value of the kinetic energy of the models which give the best fit to both the light curve and the spectra of SN 1998bw ($`3.0\times 10^{52}`$ erg, Iwamoto et al. 1998; $`5.7\times 10^{52}`$ erg, Nakamura et al. 2000a,b; $`6.0\times 10^{52}`$ erg, Branch 2001) led to the designation of this object as a hypernova, even though it does not match the original hypernova definition (Paczyński 1998).

Despite the great individuality shown by SN 1998bw at maximum light, one year later its spectrum is very similar to that of other Type Ib/c events. This gives qualitative support to the idea that the material ejected by SN 1998bw was rich in both Fe–peak and $`\alpha `$elements. The possibly large production of Fe-peak elements makes it important to obtain detailed nucleosynthesis calculations and rate estimates of occurrence of such objects, because they might have a significant impact on models of galactic chemical evolution. Since SN 1998bw was as bright as a SN Ia, it might seem unlikely that such objects would be missed in nearby searches. Nevertheless SN 1998bw may have been missed had there not been an associated GRB. Does this allow us to infer that such kind of explosions must be intrinsically rare at the present epoch?

But even if they are relatively rare now, their past frequency may have been considerably higher. SN 1998bw is thought to have been generated by a massive star (cf. Iwamoto et al. 1998, Woosley et al. 1999) which may have been more common at remote epochs, when the rate of star formation was higher. Since the time scale for the release of iron and oxygen into the ISM by these objects is much shorter than for SNe Ia and significantly less massive core-collapse SNe, hypernovae may have played an important role in the initial galactic chemical enrichment. Future work will concentrate on establishing whether the rate of occurrence of such SNe increases with redshift or look–back time. It is possible that the discovery of many GRB’s at significant redshift is already a hint in this direction, as is the conclusion for several of them that the light curve can be reproduced with a combination of a GRB afterglow plus a SN light curve (cf. Bloom et al. 1999).

This work is based on data collected at ESO-La Silla. We express our gratitude to the Visiting Astronomers who kindly gave us part of their observing time in order to secure a good follow-up of this important object. In particular, we acknowledge the support we received from Pierre Leisy and Alessandro Pizzella during the observations at La Silla. We also wish to thank Stephen Holland and Jens Hjorth for making the HST–STIS image of SN 1998bw available to us. Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge an anonymous referee for the thorough review, which really helped to improve the paper. This work has been partially supported by the grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (07CE2002, 12640233) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and Sports in Japan. The authors made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


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# Discovery of circular polarization in the Intermediate Polar 1WGA J1958.2+3232Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.

## 1 Introduction

1WGA J1958.2+3232 is one of the objects found by Israel et al. (Isr98 (1998)) in a systematic search for pulsators in the catalogue of ROSAT X-ray sources compiled by White, Giommi & Angelini (WGA94 (1994)). The source appeared modulated with a period 721 $`\pm `$ 14 s and with a pulsed fraction of about 80%. A subsequent observation performed by ASCA confirmed both the flux level and the strong periodic modulation at 734 $`\pm `$ 1 s (G.L. Israel 2000, private communication), which was interpreted as a spin period.

On the basis of optical photometry and low resolution spectroscopy, Israel et al. (Isr99 (1999)) proposed a $`m_V=15.7`$ star as the optical counterpart of 1WGA J1958.2+3232.

Further spectroscopic measurements carried out by Negueruela et al. (Neg99 (2000)), as well as time resolved optical photometry performed by Uslenghi et al. (Usl00 (2000)) (which provided detection of optical modulation at $`733.24\pm 0.02`$ s), confirmed the candidate of Israel et al. (Isr99 (1999)) and allowed its classification as an Intermediate Polar (IP).

A 4.36$`^\text{h}`$ modulation was also detected by Zharikov et al. (Zha00 (2000)), in time-resolved photometric and spectroscopic observations, and interpreted as due to the orbital period.

We report here on the results of the first polarimetric measurements on this object.

## 2 Observations

The observations were carried out at the 2.56 m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), La Palma, equipped with the TURPOL double image chopping photopolarimeter (Piirola Pii73 (1973), Pii88 (1988)). The instrument allows simultaneous measurements in the UBVRI bands and was operated in the simultaneous linear and circular polarization mode.

In this mode, polarization of the light is explored by a quarter-wave retarder plate, rotated through eight positions by 22.5 steps. A calcite slab then splits the light into ordinary and extraordinary rays, that pass through identical diaphragms. Both components of sky background light enter in the two diaphragms, resulting in a cancellation of the polarization of sky light. Finally, the beam is split by four dichroic+bandpass filter combinations and sent to five photomultipliers. Each of these channels reproduces the spectral response of one of the UBVRI Johnson-Cousins bands. In this way, truly simultaneous multiband observations can be performed. For all the observations, an integration time of 10 seconds was used for each position of the retarder plate, giving a polarimetric measurement every 3.5 minutes (whereas the time resolution for photometry is about 23 s). A 10 seconds sky background integration was normally performed every 15 minutes. High (HD 15445 and HD 204827) and null (BD +323739 and BD +284211) polarization standard stars from Schmidt et al. (Sch92 (1992)), observed many times per night (at the beginning, near midnight and at the end), were used to determine instrumental polarization and the orientation of the zero point of the retarder plate with respect to North.

We monitored 1WGA J1958.2+3232 for a total of about 13 hours, during three nights, on 2000 August 4, 5 and 6 (see the Journal of Observations in Table 1). However, due to poor weather conditions, the signal-to-noise ratio during the first night is quite low and the data have been discarded.

## 3 Data analysis and results

Data reduction was performed using dedicated routines. They allow calculation of $`Q`$, $`U`$ and $`V`$ Stokes parameters by fitting the counts recorded in the eight positions of the retarder plate with a suitable cosine function, using a least-squares algorithm. Subtraction of a mean sky value obtained by interpolating between the nearest sky background acquisitions taken close to the object is automatically performed. Finally, the measured Stokes parameters are corrected by taking into account the instrumental constants, determined through observation of standard polarized stars. The error estimate takes into account both photon statistics and uncertainty of the least-squares fit.

Table LABEL:PolCir and 3 report the two night means of circular and linear polarization, respectively. The former is characterized by amplitude and sign of the polarization percentage, the second by polarization percentage and position angle. Overall means of all the circular polarization collected data on both nights are reported in the last column of Table LABEL:PolCir.

### 3.1 Wavelength dependence of circular polarization

A strong wavelength dependence is apparent, with circular polarization increasing, in absolute value, toward the infrared. This is a common result for polarized IPs (BG CMi, Penning et al. Pen86 (1986); PQ Gem, Piirola et al. Pii93 (1993); RX J1712.6-2414, Buckley et al. Buc97 (1997)) and it is generally attributed to cyclotron emission, possibly in combination with free-free emission (Chanmugam & Frank Cha87 (1987), West et a. Wes87 (1987), Piirola et al. Pii93 (1993), Väth Vat97 (1997), Buckley Buc00 (2000)). Cyclotron radiation produces very large circular polarization and the emission is strong at low harmonics, but drops suddenly at higher harmonics. The drop is used to estimate the strength of the magnetic field: typical values estimated for the polarized Intermediate Polars are in the range 5-10 MG (see, e.g., Piirola et al. Pii93 (1993)), below the 10-100 MG reported for the Polars.

In Fig. 1 the observed polarized fluxes ($`F_\text{c}=P_\text{c}F_{\text{tot}}`$) are reported for the $`R`$ and $`I`$ bands,together with the 3$`\sigma `$ upper limits in UBV, versus $`\omega /\omega _\text{c}`$, where $`\omega _c`$ is the cyclotron frequency for a typical magnetic field of 8 MG. Normalization is arbitrary for both axis but, since the scale is logarithmic, changes in normalization result in a shift only.

### 3.2 Polarimetric variability

Polarimetric data were analysed for the presence of periodic variations related to the dynamics of the binary system.

#### 3.2.1 Circular polarization

In Fig. 2 the Lomb-Scargle periodogram (Scargle Sca82 (1982)) of the degree of the circularly polarized light in UBVRI bands is reported. $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\omega `$ are the purported orbital and white dwarf spin frequencies, respectively ($`\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$=4.36h, Zharikov et al. Zha00 (2000), $`\omega ^1`$=733.2s, Uslenghi et al. Usl00 (2000)). No evidence of a periodicity at $`\omega `$ is present. However, some power around half of this frequency can be seen in all bands other than $`U`$. The clearest evidence is in the $`I`$ filter, where the second highest peak in the periodogram occurs at 1464$`\pm `$7 s, consistent with $`\omega `$/2. Since the frequency is known a priori, in computing the significance level for this peak the correction for multiple trials does not apply and the significance level, due to the exponential distribution of the power at a given frequency, is simply given by $`1e^z`$, where $`z`$ is the value of the periodogram (i.e. the power normalized by the variance). In this case ($`z=6.6`$) the significance level is 99.8% (in effect, the presence of non-white noise results in a significance level lower than the theoretical one). Moreover, the highest peak is found at an aliased frequency of $`\omega `$/2, produced by the sampling pattern of the polarimeter, as apparent in the spectral window (bottom panel in Fig. 2). This raises the possibility that the true period is 1466 s, while the previously reported spin periods (e.g. from the X-rays) are the first harmonic.

Fig. 3 shows the I-band data folded on the 1466 s period and rebinned. Modulation is apparent, with peak-to-peak amplitude of about 2% and mean value of about -1%.

Modulation at the orbital period and at its first harmonic is also present in the $`R`$ band. The data folded over the orbital period are presented in Fig. 4.

#### 3.2.2 Linear polarization

Due to the reduced efficiency (50 %) of the linear polarization measurements in the simultaneous linear and circular polarization mode, the data have a lower signal to noise ratio than for the circular polarization. A Lomb-Scargle periodograms of the $`Q/I`$ and $`U/I`$ normalized Stokes parameters does not show any significant peak. Near the frequencies of interest, we carried out a $`\chi ^2`$ epoch folding analysis (Leahy et al. Lea83 (1983)), which is more sensitive than the Fourier techniques to non-sinusoidal signals, but no significant features were apparent.

The relatively flat wavelength dependence of the average linear polarization (Table 3) is within the measurement errors consistent with that of typical interstellar polarization, and there is no clear evidence of intrinsic component from the nightly mean polarization values.

### 3.3 Photometry

Photometric data were first corrected for atmospheric extinction and then a 3rd order polynomial was subtracted in order to remove long time scale variations due to residual atmospheric effects. Periodograms of the flux intensity in the five bands are presented in Fig. 5. In $`U`$ band a well defined peak occurs at $`\omega ^1`$=733.2$`\pm `$0.1 s and synodic pulses at both $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\omega +\mathrm{\Omega }`$ are clearly apparent. In the other bands the $`\omega `$ peak is weaker, but some power concentration is always present. Modulation at the orbital period ($`\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$=4.46$`\pm `$0.1 h, with 1/d alias at 3.76 and 5.48 h) and at its first and second harmonic is also detected. Instead, we cannot find any indication of the 1466 s period and light curves folded at this period show no significant odd-even effect. If the spin period is indeed 1466 s, both poles must emit in a very symmetrical manner.

## 4 Discussion

Polarization curves and measurements of cyclotron lines are used to measure the magnetic field and the topology in Polars. Instead, in Intermediate Polars, which have lower magnetic fields, polarization is rarely detected. To our knowledge, only four other IPs show significant polarization: BG CMi (Penning et al. Pen86 (1986)), PQ Gem (Piirola et al. Pii93 (1993)), RX J1712.6-2414 (Buckley et al. Buc97 (1997)) and V405 Aur (Shakhovskoj & Kolesnikov Sha97 (1997), Piirola et al. Pii01 (2001)). The circular polarization of BG Cmi appears to be constant, whereas the latter three show spin modulation: in all cases the polarization is in the order of few %.

Our data are not sufficient to establish conclusively phase-dependent variability of the polarization at any of the characteristic frequencies, but, surprisingly, the clearest indication is for a modulation at a period twice the accepted spin period. This seems provide a strong evidence that the spin period is 1466 s and that the main frequency in optical and X-ray light curves is its first harmonic. In Uslenghi et al. Usl00 (2000) evidence for optical flux modulation at the 1466 s period was reported, but for one night only. However, among the IP, there are other systems ( YY Dra and V405 Aur, Allan et al. All96 (1996)) which have optical and X-ray light curves dominated by the first harmonic.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the NOT staff for technical support during the observations, in particular Anlaug Amanda Kaas and Carlos Perez. We are grateful to Lucio Chiappetti for helpful conversations and to Santo Catalano for a critical reading of the manuscript and for his valuable comments. Financial support from EC grant ERBFM-RXCT 98-0195 and Italian Murst COFIN 98021541 are acknowledged.