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Title: Search for Precursor Eruptions Among Type IIB Supernovae

Abstract

The progenitor stars of several Type IIb supernovae (SNe) show indications of extended hydrogen envelopes. These envelopes might be the outcome of luminous energetic pre-explosion events, so-called precursor eruptions. We use the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) pre-explosion observations of a sample of 27 nearby SNe IIb to look for such precursors during the final years prior to the SN explosion. No precursors are found when combining the observations in 15-day bins, and we calculate the absolute-magnitude-dependent upper limit on the precursor rate. At the 90% confidence level, SNe IIb have on average <0.86 precursors as bright as an absolute R-band magnitude of -14 in the final 3.5 years before the explosion and <0.56 events over the final year. In contrast, precursors among SNe IIn have a 5 times higher rate. The kinetic energy required to unbind a low-mass stellar envelope is comparable to the radiated energy of a few-weeks-long precursor that would be detectable for the closest SNe in our sample. Therefore, mass ejections, if they are common in such SNe, are radiatively inefficient or have durations longer than months. Indeed, when using 60-day bins, a faint precursor candidate is detected prior to SN 2012cs (~2% false-alarm probability). We alsomore » report the detection of the progenitor of SN 2011dh that does not show detectable variability over the final two years before the explosion. The suggested progenitor of SN 2012P is still present, and hence is likely a compact star cluster or an unrelated object.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7];  [8]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [9];  [6]; ORCiD logo [10];  [2];  [4];  [4]
  1. Weizmann Inst. of Science, Rehovot (Israel); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany)
  2. Weizmann Inst. of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
  3. Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom)
  4. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  5. Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States); Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (Israel)
  6. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden)
  7. Carnegie Inst. for Science, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  8. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  9. Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Goleta, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  10. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); European Research Council (ERC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1812343
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; 307260; 615929; AST-1211916
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 811; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
IOP Publishing
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; stars; mass-loss; supernovae; SN2011dh; SN2012P; SN2012cs; NS2013bb

Citation Formats

Strotjohann, Nora L., Ofek, Eran O., Gal-Yam, Avishay, Sullivan, Mark, Kulkarni, Shrinivas R., Shaviv, Nir J., Fremling, Christoffer, Kasliwal, Mansi M., Nugent, Peter E., Cao, Yi, Arcavi, Iair, Sollerman, Jesper, Filippenko, Alexei V., Yaron, Ofer, Laher, Russ, and Surace, Jason. Search for Precursor Eruptions Among Type IIB Supernovae. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/811/2/117.
Strotjohann, Nora L., Ofek, Eran O., Gal-Yam, Avishay, Sullivan, Mark, Kulkarni, Shrinivas R., Shaviv, Nir J., Fremling, Christoffer, Kasliwal, Mansi M., Nugent, Peter E., Cao, Yi, Arcavi, Iair, Sollerman, Jesper, Filippenko, Alexei V., Yaron, Ofer, Laher, Russ, & Surace, Jason. Search for Precursor Eruptions Among Type IIB Supernovae. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/811/2/117
Strotjohann, Nora L., Ofek, Eran O., Gal-Yam, Avishay, Sullivan, Mark, Kulkarni, Shrinivas R., Shaviv, Nir J., Fremling, Christoffer, Kasliwal, Mansi M., Nugent, Peter E., Cao, Yi, Arcavi, Iair, Sollerman, Jesper, Filippenko, Alexei V., Yaron, Ofer, Laher, Russ, and Surace, Jason. Mon . "Search for Precursor Eruptions Among Type IIB Supernovae". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/811/2/117. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1812343.
@article{osti_1812343,
title = {Search for Precursor Eruptions Among Type IIB Supernovae},
author = {Strotjohann, Nora L. and Ofek, Eran O. and Gal-Yam, Avishay and Sullivan, Mark and Kulkarni, Shrinivas R. and Shaviv, Nir J. and Fremling, Christoffer and Kasliwal, Mansi M. and Nugent, Peter E. and Cao, Yi and Arcavi, Iair and Sollerman, Jesper and Filippenko, Alexei V. and Yaron, Ofer and Laher, Russ and Surace, Jason},
abstractNote = {The progenitor stars of several Type IIb supernovae (SNe) show indications of extended hydrogen envelopes. These envelopes might be the outcome of luminous energetic pre-explosion events, so-called precursor eruptions. We use the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) pre-explosion observations of a sample of 27 nearby SNe IIb to look for such precursors during the final years prior to the SN explosion. No precursors are found when combining the observations in 15-day bins, and we calculate the absolute-magnitude-dependent upper limit on the precursor rate. At the 90% confidence level, SNe IIb have on average <0.86 precursors as bright as an absolute R-band magnitude of -14 in the final 3.5 years before the explosion and <0.56 events over the final year. In contrast, precursors among SNe IIn have a 5 times higher rate. The kinetic energy required to unbind a low-mass stellar envelope is comparable to the radiated energy of a few-weeks-long precursor that would be detectable for the closest SNe in our sample. Therefore, mass ejections, if they are common in such SNe, are radiatively inefficient or have durations longer than months. Indeed, when using 60-day bins, a faint precursor candidate is detected prior to SN 2012cs (~2% false-alarm probability). We also report the detection of the progenitor of SN 2011dh that does not show detectable variability over the final two years before the explosion. The suggested progenitor of SN 2012P is still present, and hence is likely a compact star cluster or an unrelated object.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637x/811/2/117},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
number = 2,
volume = 811,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

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