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The diversity of Type II supernova versus the similarity in their progenitors

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Valenti, S 
Howell, DA 
Stritzinger, MD 
Graham, ML 
Hosseinzadeh, G 

Abstract

High-quality collections of Type II supernova (SN) light curves are scarce because they evolve for hundreds of days, making follow-up observations time consuming and often extending over multiple observing seasons. In light of these difficulties, the diversity of SNe II is not fully understood. Here we present ultraviolet and optical photometry of 12 SNe II monitored by the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network during 2013 to 2014, and compare them with previously studied SNe having well-sampled light curves. We explore SN II diversity by searching for correlations between the slope of the linear light-curve decay after maximum light (historically used to divide SNe II into IIL and IIP) and other measured physical properties. While SNe IIL are found to be on average more luminous than SNe IIP, SNe IIL do not appear to synthesize more 56Ni than SNe IIP. Finally, optical nebular spectra obtained for several SNe in our sample are found to be consistent with models of red supergiant progenitors in the 12–16 M range. Consequently, SNe IIL appear not to account for the deficit of massive red supergiants as SN II progenitors.

Description

Keywords

supernovae: general, supernovae: individual: SN 2013bu, SN 2013fs, SN 2014cy, SN 2013ej, ASASSN14ha, ASASSN-14gm, ASASSN-14dq, SN 2013ab, SN 2013by, SN 2014G, LSQ13dpa, LSQ14gv, SN 2014G, SN 2013ab, SN 2015W

Journal Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0035-8711
1365-2966

Volume Title

459

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)
Sponsorship
The authors acknowledge the ASASSN, La Silla Quest, and LOSS surveys for discovering new SNe that made this study possible. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 1313484. MDS gratefully acknowledges generous support provided by the Danish Agency for Science and Technology and Innovation realized through a Sapere Aude Level 2 grant. MF is supported by the European Union FP7 programme through ERC grant number 320360. SJS acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement No. [291222] and STFC grants ST/I001123/1 and ST/L000709/1. AVF's group at UC Berkeley is grateful for financial assistance from NSF grant AST-1211916, the TABASGO Foundation, Gary and Cynthia Bengier, and the Christopher R. Redlich Fund. This work was supported by the NSF under grants PHY-1125915 and AST-1109174. M.S. acknowledges support from EU/FP7-ERC grant no [615929]. This paper is based on observations made with the Swift, LCOGT, Gemini, and Keck Observatories; we thank their respective staffs for excellent assistance. The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA; the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Based on observations collected at the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern hemisphere, Chile as part of PESSTO, (the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects Survey) ESO program ID 188.D-3003.