Supernovae and their Evolution in a Low Metallicity ISM

Observations of core collapse supernovae and their progenitors generally support expectations of increasing mass loss with increasing initial mass. Mass loss rates are expected to decline at lower metallicity, and there are prospects for directly testing this for the red supergiant progenitors of Type IIP supernovae. However, there are indications that mass loss rates for high mass early type stars may be overestimated and that there are mass loss mechanisms that do not decline at lower metallicity. In this case, there may be supernova emission from strong circumstellar interaction even at low metallicity. Although there is evidence for dust formation in freely expanding ejecta of supernovae, the quantities are relatively small. Another promising site of dust formation is the circumstellar interaction region, but this should occur in only a fraction of supernovae.