Search Results (13)

Massive stars less massive than ∼30 $M_{\odot }$ evolve into a red supergiant after the main sequence. Given a standard IMF, this means about 80% of all single massive stars will experience this phase. RSGs are dominated by convection, with a radius that may extend up to thousands of solar radii. Their low temperature and gravity make them prone to losing large amounts of mass, either through pulsationally driven wind or through mass-loss outburst. RSGs are the progenitors of the most common core-collapse supernovae, type II. In the present review, we give an overview of our theoretical understanding about this spectacular phase of massive star evolution. Full article

Supernova 2023ixf occurred on 18 May 2023 in the nearby galaxy Messier 101 ($D\approx 6.85$ Mpc), making it the closest supernova in the last decade. Following its discovery, astronomers around the world rushed to observe the explosion across the electromagnetic spectrum in order to uncover its early-time properties. Based on multi-wavelength analysis during its first year after explosion, Supernova 2023ixf is a type II supernova that interacted with dense, confined circumstellar material in its local environment—this material being lost from its red supergiant progenitor in the final years before explosion. In this article, we will review the findings of >80 studies already published on this incredible event and explore how the synthesis of SN 2023ixf observations across the electromagnetic spectrum can be used to constrain type II supernova explosion physics in addition to the uncertain mass loss histories of red supergiant stars in their final years. Full article

The inevitable fate of massive stars in the initial mass range of ≈8–$30M_{\odot }$ in the red supergiant (RSG) phase is a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion, although some stars may collapse directly to a black hole. We know that this is the case, since RSGs have been directly identified and characterized for a number of supernovae (SNe) in pre-explosion archival optical and infrared images. RSGs likely all have some amount of circumstellar matter (CSM), through nominal mass loss, although evidence exists that some RSGs must experience enhanced mass loss during their lifetimes. The SNe from RSGs are hydrogen-rich Type II-Plateau (II-P), and SNe II-P at the low end of the luminosity range tend to arise from low-luminosity RSGs. The typical spectral energy distribution (SED) for such RSGs can generally be fit with a cool photospheric model, whereas the more luminous RSG progenitors of more luminous SNe II-P tend to require a greater quantity of dust in their CSM to account for their SEDs. The SN II-P progenitor luminosity range is $log(L_{\mathrm{bol}}/L_{\odot })\sim 4.0$–5.2. The fact RSGs are known up to $log(L_{\mathrm{bol}}/L_{\odot })\sim 5.7$ leads to the so-called “RSG problem”, which may, in the end, be a result of small number of available statistics to date. Full article

Type II Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), observed in 1987, released an energy of $Q\approx 3\times {10}^{53}$ erg. This huge energy is essentially the magnitude of gravitational potential or self-gravitational energy (PE) of a new born cold neutron star having a gravitational compactness or redshift $z_b\approx 0.15$. One may wonder what could be the upper limit on the amount of energy that might be released with the formation of a cold Ultra Compact Object (UCO) with an arbitrary high $z_b$. Accordingly, here, for the first time, we obtain an analytical expression for the PE of a homogeneous general relativistic UCO assuming it to be cold and static. It is found that the PE of a homogeneous UCO of mass M may exceed Mc² and be as large as 1.34 Mc². This result, though surprising, follows from an exact and correct analytical calculation based on the standard General Theory of Relativity (GTR). Further, UCOs supported by tangential stresses may be inhomogeneous and much more massive than neutron stars with PE ∼ 2.1 Mc² Thus, in principle, formation of an UCO of a few solar masses ($M_{\odot }$) might release an energy $Q\sim {10}^{55}$ erg. Full article

In this study, we analyzed the optical observations of a subluminous Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2017fzw, which exhibited high photospheric velocity (HV) at B-band maximum light. The absolute B-band peak magnitude was determined to be $M_{max}^B=-18.65\pm 0.13$ mag, similar to 91bg-like SNe Ia. An estimation of the rate of decline for the B-band light curve was determined to be $\Delta m_{15}\left(B\right)=1.60\pm 0.06$ mag. The spectra of SN 2017fzw were similar to those of 91bg-like SNe Ia, with prominent Ti ii and Si ii $\lambda 5972$ features at early phases, gradually transitioning to spectra resembling normal (mainly HV subclass) SNe Ia at later phases, with a stronger Ca ii NIR feature. Notably, throughout all phases of observation, SN 2017fzw displayed spectral evolution characteristics that were comparable to those of HV SNe Ia, and at peak brightness, the Si ii $\lambda 6355$ velocity was determined to be 13,800 $\pm 415$ km s${}^{-1}$ and a more pronounced Ca ii NIR feature was also detected. Based on these findings, we classify SN 2017fzw as a transitional object with properties of both normal and 91bg-like SNe Ia, providing support for the hypothesis of a continuous distribution of supernovae between these two groups. Full article

The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has proven to be an extraordinary supernova (SN) observatory. The clearest application of Swift’s unique strengths is obtaining very early UV and X-ray data of young SNe, which enables robust constraints on their progenitor systems. As part of a year-long Swift Guest Investigator Key Project, we initiated a follow-up program to rapidly observe all of the nearest (distance < 35 Mpc or roughly z < 0.008) extragalactic transients without waiting for them to be spectroscopically classified as supernovae. Among the possible results were to measure any UV-bright radiative cooling following the shock breakout from core-collapse SNe and shock emission from the interaction of thermonuclear Type Ia SNe with a non-degenerate companion. Just as importantly, uniformly following up and analyzing a significant sample can constrain the fraction of events for which the shock emission is not seen. Here we present the UV and X-ray measurements performed during our campaign. Our sample of 24 observed triggers included three SNe Ia, six SNe II, three stripped-envelope, core-collapse SNe, five galactic transients, three extragalactic SN imposters, and four unconfirmed transients. For our sample, the median delay time from the discovery image to the first Swift image was 1.45 days. We tabulate the X-ray upper limits and find they are sufficiently deep to have detected objects as X-ray luminous as GRB060218/SN2006aj. Other X-ray-detected SNe such as SNe 2006bp, 2008D, and 2011dh would have been detectable in some of the observations. We highlight the spectroscopically classified Type II SN 2018hna with UV-optical light curves indicating a luminosity and flux evolution very similar to SN 1987A. Full article

Type II supernovae (SNe II), which show abundant hydrogen in their spectra, belong to a class of SNe with diverse observed properties. It is commonly accepted that SNe II are produced by core collapse and explosion of massive stars. However, the large photometric and spectroscopic diversity of SNe II and the mechanisms responsible for this diversity are not thoroughly understood. In this review, we first briefly introduce the optical characteristics and possible progenitors of each subtype of SNe II. We then highlight the role of the Chinese Space Station Telescope in future SN studies. With a deep limiting magnitude, the main survey project could detect SN IIP-like objects as distant as $z\sim 1.2$ and obtain UV-optical follow-up for peculiar transients, especially those long-lived events. With a high resolution and a large field of view, the main survey camera is powerful in linking a nearby SN with its progenitor, while the integral field spectrograph is powerful in revealing the SN environment. All this information has the potential to help enrich our understanding of supernova physics. Full article

In this paper we present an extension of our nucleosynthesis parameter study within the classical neutrino-driven wind scenario of core-collapse supernovae (ccSNe). The principal aim of this decade-old study was to shine light on the production of the historical ‘p-only’ isotopes of the light trans-Fe elements in the Solar System (S.S.). One of our earliest key findings was the co-production of neighbouring classical ‘s-only’ and ‘r-only’ isotopes between Zn (Z = 30) and Ru (Z = 44), alongside the synthesis of light p-isotopes, under similar conditions of a moderately neutron-rich, low-entropy, charged-particle component of Type II SNe wind ejecta. We begin this analysis by expressing the need for nuclear-structure input from detailed spectroscopic experiments and microscopic models in the relevant shape-transition mass region between N = 50 and N = 60. Then, we focus on the unique nucleosynthetic origin of the anomalous isotopic compositions of Zr (Z = 40), Mo (Z = 42) and Ru (Z = 44) in presolar silicon carbide X-grains. In contrast to the interpretation of other studies, we show that these grains do not reflect the signature of a ‘clean’ stellar scenario but are mixtures of an exotic rapid (r-process like) nucleosynthesis component and different fractions of S.S. material. Thus, the synthesis of these light isotopes through a ‘primary’ production mode provides further means to revise the abundance estimates of the light trans-Fe elements in the S.S., reducing our dependence on still favoured ‘secondary’ scenarios like Type Ia SNe or neutron-bursts in exploding massive stars. Full article

Extensions to a $\mathsf{\Lambda }$DM model have been explored in order to face current tensions that occur within its framework, which encompasses broadening the nature of the dark matter (DM) component to include warmness and a non-perfect fluid description. In this paper, we investigated the late-time cosmological evolution of an exact solution recently found in the literature, which describes a viscous warm $\mathsf{\Lambda }$DM model ($\mathsf{\Lambda }$WDM) with a DM component that obeys a polytropic equation of state (EoS), which experiences dissipative effects with a bulk viscosity proportional to its energy density, with proportionality constant ${\xi }_0$. This solution has the particularity of having a very similar behavior to the $\mathsf{\Lambda }$CDM model for small values of ${\xi }_0$, evolving also to a de Sitter type expansion in the very far future. We explore firstly the thermodynamic consistences of this solution in the framework of Eckart’s theory of non-perfect fluids, focusing on the fulfillment of the two following conditions: (i) the near-equilibrium condition and (ii) the positiveness of the entropy production. We explore the range of parameters of the model that allow to fulfill these two conditions at the same time, finding that a viscous WDM component is compatible with both ones, being in this sense, a viable model from the thermodynamic point of view. Furthermore, we constrained the free parameters of the model with the observational data coming from supernovae Ia (SNe Ia) and the observational Hubble parameter data (OHD), using these thermodynamics analyses to define the best priors for the cosmological parameters related to the warmness and the dissipation of the DM, showing that this viscous $\mathsf{\Lambda }$WDM model can describe the combined SNe Ia+OHD data in the same way as the $\mathsf{\Lambda }$CDM model. The cosmological constraint at $3\sigma$ CL gives us an upper limit on the bulk viscous constant of order ${\xi }_0\sim {10}^6$ Pa·s, which is in agreement with some previous investigations. Our results support that the inclusion of a dissipative WDM, as an extension of the standard cosmological model, leads to a both thermodynamically consistent and properly fitted cosmological evolution. Full article

The paper presents a new hydrodynamical code, OMPEGAS, for the 3D simulation of astrophysical flows on shared memory architectures. It provides a numerical method for solving the three-dimensional equations of the gravitational hydrodynamics based on Godunov’s method for solving the Riemann problem and the piecewise parabolic approximation with a local stencil. It obtains a high order of accuracy and low dissipation of the solution. The code is implemented for multicore processors with vector instructions using the OpenMP technology, Intel SDLT library, and compiler auto-vectorization tools. The model problem of simulating a star explosion was used to study the developed code. The experiments show that the presented code reproduces the behavior of the explosion correctly. Experiments for the model problem with a grid size of $128\times 128\times 128$ were performed on an 16-core Intel Core i9-12900K CPU to study the efficiency and performance of the developed code. By using the autovectorization, we achieved a 3.3-fold increase in speed in comparison with the non-vectorized program on the processor with AVX2 support. By using multithreading with OpenMP, we achieved an increase in speed of 2.6 times on a 16-core processor in comparison with the vectorized single-threaded program. The total increase in speed was up to ninefold. Full article

We review the current scenario of long-duration Gamma-ray burst (LGRB) progenitors, and in addition, present models of massive stars for a mass range of $10–150{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ with $\Delta \mathrm{M}=10{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ and rotation rate $v/v_{\mathrm{crit}}=0$ to $0.6$ with a velocity resolution $\Delta v/v_{\mathrm{crit}}=0.1$. We further discuss possible metallicity and rotation rate distribution from our models that might be preferable for the creation of successful LGRB candidates given the observed LGRB rates and their metallicity evolution. In the current understanding, LGRBs are associated with Type-Ic supernovae (SNe). To establish LGRB-SN correlation, we discuss three observational paths: (i) space-time coincidence, (ii) evidence from photometric light curves of LGRB afterglows and SN Type-Ic, (iii) spectroscopic study of both LGRB afterglow and SN. Superluminous SNe are also believed to have the same origin as LGRBs. Therefore, we discuss constraints on the progenitor parameters that can possibly dissociate these two events from a theoretical perspective. We further discuss the scenario of single star versus binary star as a more probable pathway to create LGRBs. Given the limited parameter space in the mass, mass ratio and separation between the two components in a binary, binary channel is less likely to create LGRBs to match the observed LGRB rate. Despite effectively-single massive stars are fewer in number compared to interacting binaries, their chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE) might be the major channel for LGRB production. Full article

The properties and mass distribution of the ultramagnetized atomic nuclei which arise in heavy-ion collisions and magnetar crusts, during Type II supernova explosions and neutron star mergers are analyzed. For the magnetic field strength range of 0.1–10 teratesla, the Zeeman effect leads to a linear nuclear magnetic response that can be described in terms of magnetic susceptibility. Binding energies increase for open shell and decrease for closed shell nuclei. A noticeable enhancement in theyield of corresponding explosive nucleosynthesis products with antimagic numbers is predicted for iron group and r-process nuclei. Magnetic enrichment in a sampleof ⁴⁴Ti corroborate theobservational results and imply a significant increase in the quantity of the main titanium isotope, ⁴⁸Ti, in the chemical composition of galaxies. The enhancement of small mass number nuclides in the r-process peak may be due to magnetic effects. Full article

The nucleus of Hen 2-428 is a short orbital period (4.2 h) spectroscopic binary, whose status as potential supernovae type Ia progenitor has raised some controversy in the literature. We present preliminary results of a thorough analysis of this interesting system, which combines quantitative non-local thermodynamic (non-LTE) equilibrium spectral modelling, radial velocity analysis, multi-band light curve fitting, and state-of-the art stellar evolutionary calculations. Importantly, we find that the dynamical system mass that is derived by using all available He $\mathrm{II}$ lines does not exceed the Chandrasekhar mass limit. Furthermore, the individual masses of the two central stars are too small to lead to an SN Ia in case of a dynamical explosion during the merger process. Full article