Physical boundary between superluminous and ordinary supernovae

Characterize the exact physical and phenomenological boundary between superluminous supernovae and the luminous tail of ordinary supernova populations.

Background

The paper uses an inferred peak absolute magnitude of approximately M < -21 mag as a practical criterion for identifying plausible superluminous supernova candidates. However, luminosity alone does not establish the physical nature of an event, because exceptionally luminous ordinary supernovae may overlap with the superluminous-supernova population. The authors therefore identify the precise physical and phenomenological distinction between these populations as unresolved, an issue relevant to classification and to the interpretation of luminosity-selected transient samples.

References

In practice, a transient with an inferred peak magnitude of roughly $M \lesssim -21$ mag \citep{2012Sci...337..927G} may be considered a plausible SLSN candidate, although the exact physical and phenomenological boundary between SLSNe and the luminous tail of more ordinary SN populations remains unsettled \citep[e.g.][]{2021MNRAS.508.4342P, 2016A&A...596A..67R}.

— DETECT: Real-Time Identification of Transients with DESI Spectroscopic Redshift  (2609.28951 - Lee et al., 24 Sep 2026) in Section 1, Introduction