Very Low Energy Supernovae from Neutrino Mass Loss

It now seems likely that some percentage of more massive supernova progenitors do not explode by any of the currently discussed explosion mechanisms. This has led to speculation concerning the observable transients that might be produced if such a supernova fails. Even if a prompt outgoing shock fails to form in a collapsing presupernova star, one must still consider the hydrodynamic response of the star to the abrupt loss of mass via neutrinos as the core forms a protoneutron star. Following a suggestion by Nadezhin, we calculate the hydrodynamical responses of typical supernova progenitor stars to the rapid loss of approximately 0.2-0.5 M _⊙ of gravitational mass from their centers. In a red supergiant star, a very weak supernova with total kinetic energy ~10⁴⁷ erg results. The binding energy of a large fraction of the hydrogen envelope before the explosion is of the same order and, depending upon assumptions regarding the maximum mass of a neutron star, most of it is ejected. Ejection speeds are ~100 km s^-1 and luminosities ~10³⁹ erg s^-1 are maintained for about a year. A significant part of the energy comes from the recombination of hydrogen. The color of the explosion is extremely red and the events bear some similarity to "luminous red novae," but have much lower speeds.