In the last decade, a population of “superluminous” supernovae has been identified, which have absolute magnitudes in the range -21 to -23 mag. The discovery of these supernovae has been facilitated by the new generation of untargeted, wide-field optical surveys. Theories to explain their luminosity include magnetar spin down and circumstellar interaction. Numerous studies, based mostly on conventional photometry and spectroscopy, have so far not been conclusive. With this present proposal, we aim at probing the explosion geometry of superluminous supernovae to understand the origin of these extraordinary transients. For this purpose, we perform ToO spectropolarimetric observations of two bright superluminous supernovae with Subaru/FOCAS. By this proposal, we will double the current sample of SLSNe with spectropolarimetric data. This proposal is coordinated with Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO), with which intensive time series of spectra are obtained. By fully utilizing spectropolarimetric data combined with time series of spectra and theoretical models, we will understand the nature of superluminous supernovae and map their diversity.
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