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Red Supergiant Stars as Supernova Progenitors – the X-ray Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

Vikram V. Dwarkadas*
Affiliation:
Dept of Astronomy and Astrophysics, U Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Ave email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Red Supergiants (RSGs) have for decades been assumed to be the progenitors of Type IIP supernovae (SNe). They are expected to have dense winds with mass-loss rates up to 10−4 M yr−1. We have created a database of available X-ray lightcurves of SNe. Type IIP SNe are found to have the lowest X-ray luminosities among all classes, which is surprising given the high mass-loss rate winds expected from their red supergiant progenitors, and therefore the high density medium into which Type IIP SNe are expected to expand into. We show that the low X-ray luminosity sets a limit on the mass-loss rate of the progenitor star which can collapse to become a RSG, which is about 10−5 M yr−1. This in turn can be used to set a limit on the initial mass of a RSG star which can become a Type IIP progenitor, which is about 19 M. This is consistent with the limit obtained via direct optical progenitor identification. Optically identified progenitors of Type IIP SNe are found to be RSGs with masses less than about 17 M (Smartt (2009)). We discuss the implications of this result for stellar evolution, theorize on the fate of RSG stars with initial mass > 19 M, and discuss what type of SNe they will produce at the end of their lifetime.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

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