A study of low-energy type II supernovae
Abstract
All stars with an initial mass greater than 8Msun, but not massive enough to encounter the pair-production instability, eventually form a degenerate core and collapse to form a compact object, either a neutron star or a black hole.At the lower mass end, these massive stars die as red-supergiant stars and give rise to Type II supernovae (SNe). The diversity of observed properties of SNe II suggests a range of progenitor mass, radii, but also explosion energy.We have performed a large grid simulations designed to cover this range of progenitor and explosion properties. Using MESA STAR, we compute a set of massive star models (12-30Msun) from the main sequence until core collapse. We then generate explosions with V1D to produce ejecta with a range of explosion energies and yields. Finally, all ejecta are evolved with CMFGEN to generate multi-band light curves and spectra.In this poster, we focus our attention on the properties of low-energy explosions that give rise to low-luminosity Type II Plateau (II-P) SNe. In particular, we present a detailed study of SN 2008bk, but also include other notorious low-energy SNe II-P like 2005cs, emphasising their non-standard properties by comparing to models that match well events like SN 1999em. Such low-energy explosions, characterised by low ejecta expansion rates, are more suitable for reliable spectral line identifications.Based on our models, we discuss the distinct signatures of low-energy explosions in lower and higher mass models. One important goal is to identify whether there is a progenitor-mass bias leading to such events.
- Publication:
-
IAU General Assembly
- Pub Date:
- August 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015IAUGA..2257009L