The Energy Sources of Superluminous Supernovae

Supernovae (SNe) are the most brilliant optical stellar-class explosions. Over the past two decades, several optical transient survey projects discovered more than $\sim 100$ so-called superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) whose peak luminosities and radiated energy are $\gtrsim 7\times {10}^{43}$ erg s${}^{-1}$ and $\gtrsim {10}^{51}$ erg, at least an order of magnitude larger than that of normal SNe. According to their optical spectra features, SLSNe have been split into two broad categories of type I that are hydrogen-deficient and type II that are hydrogen-rich. Investigating and determining the energy sources of SLSNe would be of outstanding importance for understanding the stellar evolution and explosion mechanisms. The energy sources of SLSNe can be determined by analyzing their light curves (LCs) and spectra. The most prevailing models accounting for the SLSN LCs are the ${}^{56}$Ni cascade decay model, the magnetar spin-down model, the ejecta-CSM interaction model, and the jet-ejecta interaction model. In this $\mathit{\text{review}}$, we present several energy-source models and their different combinations.