2023/06/09 by Jack M. M. Neustadt, C. S. Kochanek, Neustadt, J. M. M. +3 · 8 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2306.06162
The progenitor of SN 2023ixf was a ∼104.8 to 105.0\rm ~L_\odot star (∼9 to 14 \rm~M_\odot at birth) obscured by a dusty M ≃ 10-5 \rm~M_\odot~yr-1 wind with a visual optical depth of τV ≃ 13. This is required by the progenitor SED, the post-SN X-ray and Hα luminosities, and the X-ray column density estimates. In Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) data spanning 5600 to 400 d before the SN, there is no evidence for optical variability at the level of ∼103\rm~L_\odot in R band, roughly 3 times the predicted luminosity of the obscured progenitor. This constrains direct observation of any pre-SN optical outbursts where there are LBT observations. However, models of the effects of any pre-SN outburst on the dusty wind show that an outburst of essentially any duration exceeding ∼5 times the luminosity of the progenitor would have detectable effects on the dust optical depth for decades. While the dust obscuration here is high, all red supergiants have dusty winds, and the destruction (or formation) of dust by even short-lived transients will always have long term effects on the observed brightness of the star because changes in the dust optical depths after a luminous transient occur very slowly.