CALTECH CORE-COLLAPSE PROJECT (CCCP) OBSERVATIONS OF TYPE IIn SUPERNOVAE: TYPICAL PROPERTIES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR PROGENITOR STARS

By M. Kiewe, A. Gal-yam, I. Arcavi, D. Leonard, J. Emilio Enriquez, S. Bradley Cenko, D. Fox, D. moon, D. Sand, A. Soderberg. 2010

203 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) are rare events, constituting only a few percent of all core-collapse SNe, and the current sample of well-observed SNe IIn is small. Here, we study the four SNe IIn observed by the Caltech Core-Collapse Project (CCCP). The CCCP SN sample is unbiased to the extent that object selection was not influenced by target SN properties. Therefore, these events are representative of the observed population of SNe IIn. We find that a narrow P-Cygni profile in the hydrogen Balmer lines appears to be a ubiquitous feature of SNe IIn. Our light curves show a relatively long rise time (>20 days) followed by a slow decline stage (0.01–0.15 mag day−1), and a typical V-band peak magnitude of MV = −18.4 ± 1.0 mag. We measure the progenitor star wind velocities (600–1400 km s−1) for the SNe in our sample and derive pre-explosion mass-loss rates (0.026–0.12 M☉ yr−1). We compile similar data for SNe IIn from the literature and discuss our results in the context of this larger sample. Our results indicate that typical SNe IIn arise from progenitor stars that undergo luminous-blue-variable-like mass loss shortly before they explode.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4037dab6306b8ecb722340187eb6d93ff8d51b18

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Citations in the corpus

• PREPARING FOR AN EXPLOSION: HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES AND TURBULENCE IN PRESUPERNOVAE (2013, background): “…to occur immediately after explosion, the CSM must be very close (within few to several 1015 cm) of the star; from the widths of narrow lines in spectra (typically 100-600 km s−1; Smith et al. 2008, 2010a; Kiewe et al. 2012) the mass ejection must have occurred just a few years before hand.”
• Light-curve modelling of superluminous supernova 2006gy: collision between supernova ejecta and a dense circumstellar medium (2012, background): “Several other Type IIn SNe are also suggested to have evidence for LBV progenitors (e.g. Kotak & Vink 2006; Trundle et al. 2008; Smith et al. 2011; Kiewe et al. 2012).”
• CHARACTERIZING THE V-BAND LIGHT-CURVES OF HYDROGEN-RICH TYPE II SUPERNOVAE (2014, background): “…IIn show narrow emission lines within their spectra (Schlegel 1990), but present a large diversity of photometric and spectral properties (see e.g. Kiewe et al. 2012; Taddia et al. 2013), which clouds interpretations of their progenitor systems and how they link to the ‘normal’ SNe II population.”
• Unifying Type II Supernova Light Curves with Dense Circumstellar Material (2016, background): “Note that the unshocked wind velocities measured from Type IIn SNe are higher than that and vary in the range 102 − 103 km s−1 (see Kiewe et al. 2012).”
• Carnegie Supernova Project: Observations of Type IIn supernovae ⋆ (2013, methodology): “As noted by Kiewe et al. (2012), who added 4 more SNe IIn, the current number of well studied SNe IIn is still very low, and often publications are driven by more peculiar objects.”
• RAPIDLY EVOLVING AND LUMINOUS TRANSIENTS FROM PAN-STARRS1 (2014, background): “Our interpretation of some other events as a shock breakout within an optically thick wind adds to the complex picture painted by type IIn SN of the eruptive mass loss that seems to occur for some massive stars in the year(s) immediately prior to explosion.”
• TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE STRONGLY INTERACTING WITH THEIR CIRCUMSTELLAR MEDIUM (2013, methodology): “Optical Photometry of SNe Ia-CSM The Caltech Core-Collapse Project (CCCP; Kiewe et al. 2012) found that the typical peak absolute magnitude range for SNe IIn is −18.7 ≤MR ≤ −17 mag (using H0 = 73 km s −1 Mpc−1, the value adopted throughout this work), while the Lick Observatory SN Search (LOSS)…”
• Progenitor mass constraints for core-collapse supernovae from correlations with host galaxy star formation⋆ (2012, background): “Also, a number of authors have linked LBVs to individual SNIIn and SN ‘impostors’ (e.g. Trundle et al. 2008; Smith et al. 2010; Kiewe et al. 2012), while the one direct detection of an SNIIn that exists points to a very massive star (GalYam et al. 2007).”
• Wave‐driven mass loss in the last year of stellar evolution: setting the stage for the most luminous core‐collapse supernovae (2012, background): “E-mail: eliot@berkeley.edu † E-mail: jhshiode@berkeley.edu tor mass loss rates exceeding ∼ 10−2 M yr−1 (Kiewe et al. 2012), far larger than can be explained by continuous mass loss processes operating in massive stars.”