Progenitors of early-time interacting supernovae

Abstract

ABSTRACT We compute an extensive set of early-time spectra of supernovae interacting with circumstellar material using the radiative transfer code cmfgen. Our models are applicable to events observed from 1 to a few days after explosion. Using these models, we constrain the progenitor and explosion properties of a sample of 17 observed interacting supernovae at early times. Because massive stars have strong mass-loss, these spectra provide valuable information about supernova progenitors, such as mass-loss rates, wind velocities, and surface abundances. We show that these events span a wide range of explosion and progenitor properties, exhibiting supernova luminosities in the 108 to 1012 L⊙ range, temperatures from 10 000 to 60 000 K, progenitor mass-loss rates from a few 10−4 up to 1 M⊙ yr−1, wind velocities from 100 to 800 km s−1, and surface abundances from solar-like to H-depleted. Our results suggest that many progenitors of supernovae interacting with circumstellar material have significantly increased mass-loss before explosion compared to what massive stars show during the rest of their lifetimes. We also infer a lack of correlation between surface abundances and mass-loss rates. This may point to the pre-explosion mass-loss mechanism being independent of stellar mass. We find that the majority of these events have CNO-processed surface abundances. In the single star scenario this points to a preference towards high-mass RSGs as progenitors of interacting SNe, while binary evolution could impact this conclusion. Our models are publicly available and readily applicable to analyse results from ongoing and future large-scale surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Factory.