The nearby Type Ibn supernova 2015G: signatures of asymmetry and progenitor constraints

Abstract

We present the results of an extensive observational campaign on the nearby Type Ibn SN 2015G, including data from radio through ultravioletwavelengths. SN2015Gwas asymmetric, showing late-time nebular lines redshifted by similar to 1000 km s(-1). It shared many features with the prototypical SN Ibn 2006jc, including extremely strong He I emission lines and a late-time blue pseudo-continuum. The young SN 2015G showed narrow P-Cygni profiles of He I, but never in its evolution did it showany signature of hydrogen -arguing for a dense, ionized and hydrogenfree circumstellar medium moving outward with a velocity of similar to 1000 km s(-1) and created by relatively recent mass-loss from the progenitor star. Ultraviolet through infrared observations show that the fading SN 2015G (which was probably discovered some 20 d post-peak) had a spectral energy distribution that was well described by a simple, single-component blackbody. Archival HST images provide upper limits on the luminosity of SN 2015G's progenitor, while non-detections of any luminous radio afterglow and optical non-detections of outbursts over the past two decades provide constraints upon its mass-loss history.