1. The death of massive stars - II. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type Ibc supernovae
- Author
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Eldridge, John J., Fraser, Morgan, Smartt, Stephen J., Maund, Justyn R., and Crockett, R. Mark
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics - Abstract
The progenitors of many type II core-collapse supernovae have now been identified directly on pre-discovery imaging. Here we present an extensive search for the progenitors of type Ibc supernovae in all available pre-discovery imaging since 1998. There are 12 type Ibc supernovae with no detections of progenitors in either deep ground-based or Hubble Space Telescope archival imaging. The deepest absolute BVR magnitude limits are between -4 and -5. We compare these limits with the observed Wolf-Rayet population in the Large Magellanic Cloud and estimate a 16 per cent probability we have failed to detect such a progenitor by chance. Alternatively the progenitors evolve significantly before core-collapse or we have underestimated the extinction towards the progenitors. Reviewing the relative rates and ejecta mass estimates from lightcurve modelling of Ibc SNe, we find both incompatible with Wolf-Rayet stars with initial masses >25Msun being the only progenitors. We present binary evolution models that fit these observational constraints. Stars in binaries with initial masses <20Msun lose their hydrogen envelopes in binary interactions to become low mass helium stars. They retain a low mass hydrogen envelope until approximately 10,000 years before core-collapse; hence it is not surprising that galactic analogues have been difficult to identify., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 31 pages, 12 figures, 8 tables
- Published
- 2013
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