2015/06/21 by Hyun-Jeong Kim, Sung-Chul Yoon, Bon-Chul Koo · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Binary number #Binary star #Brightness #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Helium #Light curve #Radiative transfer #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Stars #Stellar evolution #Supernova #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/809/2/131
14 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2015/06/21 · openalex publication_date 2015/08/19 · arxiv updated 2015/08/26 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In several recent observational studies of Type Ib/c supernovae (SNe Ib/c), the inferred ejecta masses have a peak value of 2.0–4.0 , in favor of the binary scenario for their progenitors rather than the Wolf–Rayet star scenario. To investigate the observational properties of relatively low-mass helium stars in binary systems as possible SN Ib/c progenitors, we constructed atmospheric models with the non-LTE radiative transfer code CMFGEN, using binary star evolution models. We find that these helium stars can be characterized by relatively narrow helium emission lines if the mass-loss rate during the final evolutionary phase is significantly enhanced as implied by many SN Ib/c observations. The optical brightness of helium star progenitors can be meaningfully enhanced with a strong wind for stars with , but is hardly affected or slightly weakened for relatively low-mass stars with , compared to the simple estimate using blackbody approximation. We further confirm the previous suggestion that the optical brightness would be generally higher for a less massive SN Ib/c progenitor. In good agreement with previous studies, our results indicate that the optical magnitudes and colors of the recently detected progenitor of the SN Ib iPTF13bvn can be well explained by a binary progenitor with a final helium star mass of about 3.0–4.4 .