TYPE II SUPERNOVAE: MODEL LIGHT CURVES AND STANDARD CANDLE RELATIONSHIPS

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/2205· OSTI ID:21371817

Kasen, Daniel

A survey of Type II supernovae explosion models has been carried out to determine how their light curves and spectra vary with their mass, metallicity, and explosion energy. The presupernova models are taken from a recent survey of massive stellar evolution at solar metallicity supplemented by new calculations at subsolar metallicity. Explosions are simulated by the motion of a piston near the edge of the iron core and the resulting light curves and spectra are calculated using full multi-wavelength radiation transport. Formulae are developed that describe approximately how the model observables (light curve luminosity and duration) scale with the progenitor mass, explosion energy, and radioactive nucleosynthesis. Comparison with observational data shows that the explosion energy of typical supernovae (as measured by kinetic energy at infinity) varies by nearly an order of magnitude-from 0.5 to 4.0 x 10{sup 51} ergs, with a typical value of approx0.9 x 10{sup 51} ergs. Despite the large variation, the models exhibit a tight relationship between luminosity and expansion velocity, similar to that previously employed empirically to make SNe IIP standardized candles. This relation is explained by the simple behavior of hydrogen recombination in the supernova envelope, but we find a sensitivity to progenitor metallicity and mass that could lead to systematic errors. Additional correlations between light curve luminosity, duration, and color might enable the use of SNe IIP to obtain distances accurate to approx20% using only photometric data.

• OSTI ID: 21371817
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 703, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/2205; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COLOR
EXPLOSIONS
HYDROGEN
IRON
KINETIC ENERGY
LUMINOSITY
MASS
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
PISTONS
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
RADIATION TRANSPORT
RECOMBINATION
STAR EVOLUTION
SUPERNOVAE
BINARY STARS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY
ENERGY TRANSFER
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
EVOLUTION
HEAT TRANSFER
MACHINE PARTS
METALS
NONMETALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STARS
SYNTHESIS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
VARIABLE STARS