• DOI:10.1093/mnras/stt1612
• Corpus ID: 3228766

The death of massive stars – I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of Type II-P supernovae

@article{Smartt2008TheDO,
  title={The death of massive stars – I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of Type II-P supernovae},
  author={Steven J. Smartt and Jan J. Eldridge and R. Mark Crockett and J. R. Maund Queen's University Belfast IoA and Cambridge Dark Cosmology Centre and Copenhagen},
  journal={Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year={2008},
  volume={395},
  pages={1409-1437}
}

• S. Smartt, J. Eldridge, +3 authors Copenhagen
• Published 2 September 2008
• Physics
• Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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 BV R magnitude limits are between 4 m and 5 m . 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 > 25M⊙being the only progenitors. We present binary evolution models that fit these observational constraints. Stars in binaries with initial masses . 20M⊙lose their hydrogen envelopes in binary interactions to become low mass helium stars. They retain a low mass hydrogen envelope until � 10 4 years before core-collapse; hence it is not surprising that galactic analogues have been difficult to identify.