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The fast, luminous ultraviolet transient AT2018cow: extreme supernova, or disruption of a star by an intermediate-mass black hole?
Wide-field optical surveys have begun to uncover large samples of fast (trise ≲ 5 d), luminous (Mpeak < −18), blue transients. While commonly attributed to the breakout of a supernova shock into a dense wind, the great distances to the transients of this class found so far have hampered detailed …