SUPERNOVA 2003ie WAS LIKELY A FAINT TYPE IIP EVENT
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 (Israel)
We present new photometric observations of supernova (SN) 2003ie starting one month before discovery, obtained serendipitously while observing its host galaxy. With only a weak upper limit derived on the mass of its progenitor (<25 M{sub Sun }) from previous pre-explosion studies, this event could be a potential exception to the ''red supergiant (RSG) problem'' (the lack of high-mass RSGs exploding as Type IIP SNe). However, this is true only if SN2003ie was a Type IIP event, something which has never been determined. Using recently derived core-collapse SN light-curve templates, as well as by comparison to other known SNe, we find that SN2003ie was indeed a likely Type IIP event. However, with a plateau magnitude of {approx} - 15.5 mag, it is found to be a member of the faint Type IIP class. Previous members of this class have been shown to arise from relatively low-mass progenitors (<12 M{sub Sun }). It therefore seems unlikely that this SN had a massive RSG progenitor. The use of core-collapse SN light-curve templates is shown to be helpful in classifying SNe with sparse coverage. These templates are likely to become more robust as large homogeneous samples of core-collapse events are collected.
- OSTI ID:
- 22130802
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 145; ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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