Identifying Supernova Progenitors and Constraining the Explosion Channels

September 2012 • 2012IAUS..279..110V

Authors • Van Dyk, Schuyler D.

Abstract • Connecting the endpoints of massive star evolution with the various types of core-collapse supernovae (SNe) is ultimately the fundamental puzzle to be explored and solved. We can assemble clues indirectly, e.g., from information about the environments in which stars explode and establish constraints on the evolutionary phases of these stars. However, this is best accomplished through direct identification of the actual star that has exploded in pre-supernova imaging, preferably in more than one photometric band, where color and luminosity for the star can be precisely measured. We can then interpret the star's properties in light of expectations from the latest massive stellar evolutionary models, to attempt to assign an initial mass to the progenitor. So far, this has been done most successfully for SNe II-P, for which we now know that red supergiants in a relatively limited initial mass range are responsible. More recently, we have limited examples of the progenitors of SNe II-L, IIn, and IIb. The progenitors of SNe Ib and Ic, however, have been elusive so far; I will discuss the current status of our knowledge of this particular channel.

Links

• GIF http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2012IAUS..279..110V
• ARTICLE http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2012IAUS..279..110V?defaultprint=YES