2022ApJ...932...84M

Progenitor models for the "luminous" subclass of Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs; prototype: AT2018cow) are challenged to simultaneously explain all of their observed properties: fast optical rise times of days or less; peak luminosities >=10⁴⁴ erg s^–1; low yields <=0.1M_☉ of ⁵⁶Ni; aspherical ejecta with a wide velocity range (<=3000 km s^–1 to >=0.1-0.5c with increasing polar latitude); presence of hydrogen-depleted-but-not-free dense circumstellar material (CSM) on radial scales from ∼10¹⁴ cm to ∼3 x 10¹⁶ cm; embedded variable source of non-thermal X-ray/γ-rays, suggestive of a compact object. We show that all of these properties are consistent with the tidal disruption and hyper-accretion of a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star by a black hole or neutron star binary companion. In contrast with related previous models, the merger occurs with a long delay (>=100 yr) following the common envelope (CE) event responsible for birthing the binary, as a result of gradual angular momentum loss to a relic circumbinary disk. Disk-wind outflows from the merger-generated accretion flow generate the ⁵⁶Ni-poor aspherical ejecta with the requisite velocity range. The optical light curve is powered primarily by reprocessing X-rays from the inner accretion flow/jet, though CSM shock interaction also contributes. Primary CSM sources include WR mass loss from the earliest stages of the merger (<=10¹⁴ cm) and the relic CE disk and its photoevaporation-driven wind (>=10¹⁶ cm). Longer delayed mergers may instead give rise to supernovae Type Ibn/Icn (depending on the WR evolutionary state), connecting these transient classes with LFBOTs.