Modeling the Light Curves of the Luminous Type Ic Supernova 2007D

SN 2007D is a nearby (redshift z = 0.023146), luminous Type Ic supernova (SN) having a narrow light curve (LC) and high peak luminosity. Previous research based on the assumption that it was powered by the <SUP>56</SUP>Ni cascade decay suggested that the inferred <SUP>56</SUP>Ni mass and the ejecta mass are ∼1.5 M <SUB>☉</SUB> and ∼3.5 M <SUB>☉</SUB>, respectively. In this paper, we employ some multiband LC models to model the R-band LC and the color (V − R) evolution of SN 2007D to investigate the possible energy sources powering them. We find that the pure <SUP>56</SUP>Ni model is disfavored; the multiband LCs of SN 2007D can be reproduced by a magnetar whose initial rotational period P <SUB>0</SUB> and magnetic field strength B <SUB> p </SUB> are {7.28}<SUB>-0.21</SUB><SUP>+0.21</SUP> (or {9.00}<SUB>-0.42</SUB><SUP>+0.32</SUP>) ms and {3.10}<SUB>-0.35</SUB><SUP>+0.36</SUP>× {10}<SUP>14</SUP> (or {2.81}<SUB>-0.44</SUB><SUP>+0.43</SUP>× {10}<SUP>14</SUP>) G, respectively. By comparing the spectrum of SN 2007D with that of some superluminous SNe (SLSNe), we find that it might be a luminous SN like several luminous “gap-filler” optical transients that bridge ordinary and SLSNe, rather than a genuine SLSN.