Lunch talk on Oct. 9, 2023

The progenitors of hydrogen-rich core-collapse supernovae: SN 2023ixf in M101

Speaker: Ze-Xi Niu (UCAS)

Venue: Video Conference

Time: 12:30 PM, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023

Abstract: 

After endeavor of near 30 years, astronomers have identified ~30 progenitors for core-collapse supernovae (SNe),  most of which are the red supergiant (RSG) progenitors of hydrogen-rich Type II SNe. However, missing high-mass progenitor and binary channel of progenitors of Type II SNe still remain unresolved.  Accurate measurement of the progenitor mass is thus crucial to tackle these important questions. As one of the closest SN in the last decade, the Type II SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel Galaxy M101 is an unprecedented target to investigate the progenitor star that has exploded. It has very abundant archival observations taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and many other ground-based telescopes. From the pre-explosion images, a progenitor (candidate) is significantly detected, which is consistent with a RSG enshrouded by very heavy circumstellar dust. It also shows brightness variability from periodic pulsation. Despite being the best ever observed progenitor, however, there are still significant uncertainties in its mass measurements. In this talk, I will present our analysis of the progenitor of SN 2023ixf based on its direct detection and its local environment. We find that stellar variability, circumstellar extinction, and the uncertain dust composition could all introduce biases to the results. SN 2023ixf therefore proves it important to be more careful in the SN progenitor studies.

Report PPT:  SWIFAR_Zexi Niu.pdf