EVIDENCE FOR A COMPACT WOLF-RAYET PROGENITOR FOR THE TYPE Ic SUPERNOVA PTF 10vgv

Journal Article · Thu Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/747/1/L5· OSTI ID:22048021

Corsi, A ^[1]; Ofek, E O; Gal-Yam, A; Arcavi, I; Ben-Ami, S; Rabinak, I ^[2]; Frail, D A ^[3]; Poznanski, D ^[4]; Mazzali, P A ^[5]; Kulkarni, S R; Kasliwal, M M; Horesh, A ^[6]; Cenko, S B; Filippenko, A V; Kleiser, I K. W.; Silverman, J M ^[7]; Fox, D B; Howell, J L ^[8]; Nakar, E ^[9]; Sari, R ^[10] ; others, and

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1. LIGO laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 100-36, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
2. Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 (Israel)
3. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box 0, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
4. School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978 (Israel)
5. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico, vicolo dellOsservatorio, 5, I-35122 Padova (Italy)
6. Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
7. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)
8. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
9. Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978 (Israel)
10. Racah Institute for Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904 (Israel)

We present the discovery of PTF 10vgv, a Type Ic supernova (SN) detected by the Palomar Transient Factory, using the Palomar 48 inch telescope (P48). R-band observations of the PTF 10vgv field with P48 probe the SN emission from its very early phases (about two weeks before R-band maximum) and set limits on its flux in the week prior to the discovery. Our sensitive upper limits and early detections constrain the post-shock-breakout luminosity of this event. Via comparison to numerical (analytical) models, we derive an upper-limit of R {approx}< 4.5 R{sub Sun} (R {approx}< 1 R{sub Sun }) on the radius of the progenitor star, a direct indication in favor of a compact Wolf-Rayet star. Applying a similar analysis to the historical observations of SN 1994I yields R {approx}< 1/4 R{sub Sun} for the progenitor radius of this SN.

• OSTI ID: 22048021
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 747; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
LUMINOSITY
PROBES
SENSITIVITY
SUPERNOVAE
TELESCOPES
TRANSIENTS
WOLF-RAYET STARS