Optical Follow-Up Observations of PTF10qts, a Luminous Broad-Lined Type Ic Supernova Found by the Palomar Transient Factory

We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of the broad-lined Type Ic supernova (SN Ic-BL) PTF10qts, which was discovered as part of the Palomar Transient Factory. The supernova was located in a dwarf galaxy of magnitude r = 21.1 at a redshift z = 0.0907.We find that the R-band light curve is a poor proxy for bolometric data and use photometric and spectroscopic data to construct and constrain the bolometric light curve. The derived bolometric magnitude at maximum light is Mbol = −18.51 +/- 0.2 mag, comparable to that of SN1998bw (Mbol = -18.7 mag) which was associated with a gamma-ray burst (GRB). PTF10qts is one of the most luminous SN Ic-BL observed without an accompanying GRB. We estimate the physical parameters of the explosion using data from our programme of follow-up observations, finding that it produced a larger mass of radioactive nickel compared to other SNeIc-BL with similar inferred ejecta masses and kinetic energies. The progenitor of the event was likely a approximately 20 solar mass star.