SN 2009js at the Crossroads between Normal and Subluminous Type IIP Supernovae: Optical and Mid-infrared Evolution

We present a study of SN 2009js in NGC 918. Multi-band Kanata optical photometry covering the first ~120 days shows the source to be a Type IIP SN. Reddening is dominated by that due to our Galaxy. One-year-post-explosion photometry with the New Technology Telescope and a Subaru optical spectrum 16 days post-discovery both imply a good match with the well-studied subluminous SN 2005cs. The plateau-phase luminosity of SN 2009js and its plateau duration are more similar to the intermediate luminosity IIP SN 2008in. Thus, SN 2009js shares characteristics with both subluminous and intermediate luminosity supernovae (SNe). Its radioactive tail luminosity lies between SN 2005cs and SN 2008in, whereas its quasi-bolometric luminosity decline from peak to plateau (quantified by a newly defined parameter Δlog{L}, which measures adiabatic cooling following shock breakout) is much smaller than both the others'. We estimate the ejected mass of ⁵⁶Ni to be low (~0.007 M _⊙). The SN explosion energy appears to have been small, similar to that of SN 2005cs. SN 2009js is the first subluminous SN IIP to be studied in the mid-infrared. It was serendipitously caught by Spitzer at very early times. In addition, it was detected by WISE 105 days later with a significant 4.6 μm flux excess above the photosphere. The infrared excess luminosity relative to the photosphere is clearly smaller than that of SN 2004dj, which has been extensively studied in the mid-infrared. The excess may be tentatively assigned to heated dust with mass ~3 × 10^-5 M _⊙, or to CO fundamental emission as a precursor to dust formation.