No Arabic abstract
We use natural seeing imaging of SN 2013ej in M74 to identify a progenitor candidate in archival {it Hubble Space Telescope} + ACS images. We find a source coincident with the SN in the {it F814W}-filter, however the position of the progenitor candidate in contemporaneous {it F435W} and {it F555W}-filters is significantly offset. We conclude that the progenitor candidate is in fact two physically unrelated sources; a blue source which is likely unrelated to the SN, and a red source which we suggest exploded as SN 2013ej. Deep images with the same instrument onboard {it HST} taken when the supernova has faded (in approximately two years time) will allow us to accurately characterise the unrelated neighbouring source and hence determine the intrinsic flux of the progenitor in three filters. We suggest that the {it F814W} flux is dominated by the progenitor of SN 2013ej, and assuming a bolometric correction appropriate to an M-type supergiant, we estimate that the mass of the progenitor of SN 2013ej was between 8 -- 15.5 M$_{odot}$.
We present results based on follow-up observations of the Type II-plateau supernova (SN) 2013ej at 6 epochs spanning a total duration of $sim$37 d. The $R_{c}$-band linear polarimetric observations were carried out between the end of the plateau and the beginning of the nebular phases as noticed in the photometric light curve. The contribution due to interstellar polarization (ISP) was constrained by using couple of approaches, i.e. based upon the observations of foreground stars lying within 5arcmin, and 10$degr$ radius of the SN location and also investigating the extinction due to the Milky Way and host galaxy towards the SN direction. Our analysis revealed that in general the intrinsic polarization of the SN is higher than the polarization values for the foreground stars and exhibits an increasing trend during our observations. After correcting the ISP of $sim$0.6 per cent, the maximum intrinsic polarization of SN~2013ej is found to be 2.14 $pm$ 0.57 per cent. Such a strong polarization has rarely been seen in Type II-P SNe. If this is the case, i.e., the `polarization bias effect is still negligible, the polarization could be attributed to the asymmetry of the inner ejecta of the SN because the ISP towards the SN location is estimated to be, at most, 0.6 per cent.
The enigmatic type IIP SN 2016X demonstrates the unprecedented asphericity in the nebular H-alpha line profile, the absence of nebular [O I] emission, and the unusual occultation effect due to the internal dust. The hydrodynamic modelling of the bolometric light curve and expansion velocities suggests that the event is an outcome of the massive star explosion that ejected 28 Msun with the kinetic energy of 1.7x10^51 erg and 0.03 Msun of radioactive Ni-56. We recover the bipolar distribution of Ni-56 from the H-alpha profile via the simulation of the emissivity produced by non-spherical Ni-56 ejecta. The conspicuous effect of the dust absorption in the H-alpha profile rules out the occultation by the dusty sphere or dusty thick disk but turns out consistent with the thin dusty disk-like structure in the plane perpendicular to the bipolar axis. We speculate that the absence of the nebular [O I] emission might originate from the significant cooling of the oxygen-rich matter mediated by CO and SiO molecules.
Type IIP supernovae (SNe IIP), which represent the most common class of core-collapse (CC) SNe, show a rapid increase in continuum polarization just after entering the tail phase. This feature can be explained by a highly asymmetric helium core, which is exposed when the hydrogen envelope becomes transparent. Here we report the case of a SN IIP (SN~2017gmr) that shows an unusually early rise of the polarization, $gtrsim 30$ days before the start of the tail phase. This implies that SN~2017gmr is an SN IIP that has very extended asphericity. The asymmetries are not confined to the helium core, but reach out to a significant part of the outer hydrogen envelope, hence clearly indicating a marked intrinsic diversity in the aspherical structure of CC explosions. These observations provide new constraints on the explosion mechanism, where viable models must be able to produce such extended deviations from spherical symmetry, and account for the observed geometrical diversity.
We present extensive optical ($UBVRI$, $griz$, and open CCD) and near-infrared ($ZYJH$) photometry for the very nearby Type IIP SN ~2013ej extending from +1 to +461 days after shock breakout, estimated to be MJD $56496.9pm0.3$. Substantial time series ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy obtained from +8 to +135 days are also presented. Considering well-observed SNe IIP from the literature, we derive $UBVRIJHK$ bolometric calibrations from $UBVRI$ and unfiltered measurements that potentially reach 2% precision with a $B-V$ color-dependent correction. We observe moderately strong Si II $lambda6355$ as early as +8 days. The photospheric velocity ($v_{rm ph}$) is determined by modeling the spectra in the vicinity of Fe II $lambda5169$ whenever observed, and interpolating at photometric epochs based on a semianalytic method. This gives $v_{rm ph} = 4500pm500$ km s$^{-1}$ at +50 days. We also observe spectral homogeneity of ultraviolet spectra at +10--12 days for SNe IIP, while variations are evident a week after explosion. Using the expanding photosphere method, from combined analysis of SN 2013ej and SN 2002ap, we estimate the distance to the host galaxy to be $9.0_{-0.6}^{+0.4}$ Mpc, consistent with distance estimates from other methods. Photometric and spectroscopic analysis during the plateau phase, which we estimated to be $94pm7$ days long, yields an explosion energy of $0.9pm0.3times10^{51}$ ergs, a final pre-explosion progenitor mass of $15.2pm4.2$~M$_odot$ and a radius of $250pm70$~R$_odot$. We observe a broken exponential profile beyond +120 days, with a break point at +$183pm16$ days. Measurements beyond this break time yield a $^{56}$Ni mass of $0.013pm0.001$~M$_odot$.
The progenitor of the Type IIP SN 2008bk was discovered in pre-explosion griIYJHKs images, acquired with European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope FORS, HAWK-I and ISAAC instruments and the Gemini GMOS-S instrument. The wealth of pre-explosion observations makes the progenitor of this SN one of the best studied, since the detection of the progenitor of SN1987A. Previous analyses of the properties of the progenitor were hampered by the limited quality of the photometric calibration of the pre-explosion images and the crowded nature of the field containing the SN. We present new late-time observations of the site of SN2008bk acquired with identical instrument and filter configurations as the pre-explosion observations, and confirm that the previously identified red supergiant star was the progenitor of this SN and has now disappeared. Image subtraction techniques were used to conduct precise photometry of the now missing progenitor, independently of blending from any nearby stars. The nature of the surrounding stellar population and their contribution to the flux attributed to the progenitor in the pre-explosion images are probed using HST WFC3 UVIS/IR observations. In comparison with MARCS synthetic spectra, we find the progenitor was a highly reddened RSG with luminosity log (L/Lsun)=4.84+/-0.11, corresponding to an initial mass of Minit=12.9+/-1.7Msun. The temperature of the progenitor was hotter than previously expected for RSGs (T ~ 4330K), but consistent with new temperatures derived for RSGs using SED fitting techniques. We show that there is evidence for significant extinction of the progenitor, possibly arising in the CSM; but that this dust yields a similar reddening law to dust found in the ISM (E(B-V)=0.77 with Rv=3.1). [Abridged]