Supernova Remnant Progenitor Masses in M83
Abstract
With resolved stellar photometry from Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/UVIS imaging of M83, we fit for the ages of the young, resolved stellar populations at the locations of optically-identified supernova remnants (SNRs) in M83. We generate color-magnitude diagrams of the stars within 50 pc of each SNR and fit stellar evolution models to obtain the population ages. From each of these ages, we infer the progenitor mass that corresponds to the lifetime of the most prominent age that is <50 Myr. Some SNRs show no evidence for having a young progenitor and are therefore good Type Ia SNR candidates, and about 20% have best-fit progenitor masses >15 M⊙. This is the largest collection of high-mass progenitor SNRs to date, including our highest-mass progenitor inference found so far, with an age constraint of <8 Myr. Overall, the distribution of progenitor masses has a power-law index of -3.0, steeper than Salpeter initial mass function (-2.35). We will discuss possible reasons for the relatively low number of high-mass progenitors, including the difficulty of finding and measuring such objects, and the possibility that only a fraction of very massive stars produce supernovae.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #235
- Pub Date:
- January 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AAS...23532602W