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We present a sample of 34 normal Type II supernovae (SNe II) detected with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with multiband UV light curves starting at t ≤ 4 days after explosion, and X-ray observations. We characterize the early UV-optical color, provide empirical host-extinction corrections, and show that the t > 2 day UV-optical colors and the blackbody evolution of the sample are consistent with shock cooling (SC) regardless of the presence of “flash ionization” features. We present a framework for fitting SC models that can reproduce the parameters of a set of multigroup simulations up to 20% in radius and velocity. Observations of 15 SNe II are well fit by models with breakout radii 10 ^14 cm breakout radius. However, these fits predict an early rise during the first day that is too slow. We suggest that these large-breakout events are explosions of stars with an inflated envelope or with confined circumstellar material (CSM). Using the X-ray data, we derive constraints on the extended (∼10 ^15 cm) CSM density independent of spectral modeling and find that most SN II progenitors lose $\dot{M}\lt {10}^{-4}{M}_{\odot }\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ up to a few years before explosion. We show that the overall observed breakout radius distribution is skewed to higher radii due to a luminosity bias. We argue that the ${66}_{-22}^{+11} \% $ of red supergiants (RSGs) explode as SNe II with breakout radii consistent with the observed distribution of RSGs, with a tail extending to large radii, likely due to the presence of CSM.

We present the discovery and analysis of SN 2022oqm, a Type Ic supernova (SN) detected

Narrow transient emission lines (flash-ionization features) in early supernova (SN) spectra trace the presence of circumstellar material (CSM) around the massive progenitor stars of core-collapse SNe. The lines disappear within days after the SN explosion, suggesting that this material is spatially confined, and originates from enhanced mass loss shortly (months to a few years) prior to the explosion. We performed a systematic survey of H-rich (Type II) SNe discovered within less than 2 days from the explosion during the first phase of the Zwicky Transient Facility survey (2018–2020), finding 30 events for which a first spectrum was obtained within 36% at the 95% confidence level) confirms that elevated mass loss in massive stars prior to SN explosion is common. We find that SNe II showing flash-ionization features are not significantly brighter, nor bluer, nor more slowly rising than those without. This implies that CSM interaction does not contribute significantly to their early continuum emission, and that the CSM is likely optically thin. We measured the persistence duration of flash-ionization emission and find that most SNe show flash features for ≈5 days. Rarer events, with persistence timescales >10 days, are brighter and rise longer, suggesting these may be intermediate between regular SNe II and strongly interacting SNe IIn.

Among the supernovae (SNe) that show strong interaction with a circumstellar medium (CSM), there is a rare subclass of Type Ia supernovae, SNe Ia-CSM, which show strong narrow hydrogen emission lines much like SNe IIn but on top of a diluted Type Ia spectrum. The only previous systematic study of this class identified 16 SNe Ia-CSM, eight historic and eight from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). Now using the successor survey to PTF, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), we have classified 12 additional SNe Ia-CSM through the systematic Bright Transient Survey (BTS). Consistent with previous studies, we find these SNe to have slowly evolving optical light curves with peak absolute magnitudes between −19.1 and −21, spectra having weak H β and large Balmer decrements of ∼7. Out of the 10 SNe from our sample observed by NEOWISE, nine have 3 σ detections, with some SNe showing a reduction in the red wing of H α , indicative of newly formed dust. We do not find our SN Ia-CSM sample to have a significantly different distribution of equivalent widths of He i λ 5876 than SNe IIn as observed in Silverman et al. The hosts tend to be late-type galaxies with recent star formation. We derive a rate estimate of ${29}_{-21}^{+27}$ Gpc ^−3 yr ^−1 for SNe Ia-CSM, which is ∼0.02%–0.2% of the SN Ia rate. We also identify six ambiguous SNe IIn/Ia-CSM in the BTS sample and including them gives an upper limit rate of 0.07%–0.8%. This work nearly doubles the sample of well-studied Ia-CSM objects in Silverman et al., increasing the total number to 28.

Type II supernovae (SNe) stem from the core collapse of massive (>8 M⊙) stars. Due to their short lifespan, we expect a very low rate of such events in elliptical hosts, where the star formation rate is low, and which are mostly comprised of an old stellar population. SN 2016hil (iPTF16hil) is an SN II located in the extreme outskirts of an elliptical galaxy at z = 0.0608 (projected distance 27.2 kpc). It was detected near peak (Mr ∼ −17 mag) 9 days after the last non-detection. The event has some potentially peculiar properties: it presented an apparently double-peaked light curve, and its spectra suggest low metallicity content (Z < 0.4 Z⊙). We place a tentative upper limit on the mass of a potential faint host at using deep optical imaging from Keck/LRIS. In light of this, we discuss the possibility of the progenitor forming locally and other more exotic formation scenarios such as a merger or common-envelope evolution causing a time-delayed explosion. Further observations of the explosion site in the UV are needed in order to distinguish between the cases. Regardless of the origin of the transient, observing a population of such seemingly hostless SNe II could have many uses, including an estimate the amount of faint galaxies in a given volume, and tests of the prediction of a time-delayed population of core-collapse SNe in locations otherwise unfavorable for the detection of such events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]