Disentangling the Origin and Heating Mechanism of Supernova Dust: Late-Time Spitzer Spectroscopy of the Type IIn SN 2005ip

TL;DR

This study uses late-time infrared observations of SN 2005ip to identify two distinct dust components, revealing their origins and heating mechanisms, and linking the progenitor's eruption history to an LBV star.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of multiple dust components in a Type IIn supernova, distinguishing their origins and heating processes through infrared spectroscopy.

Findings

Warmer dust (~5e-4 solar masses) is from newly formed ejecta or dense shell, heated by circumstellar interaction.

Cooler dust likely from a pre-existing shell heated by shock echo, with mass ~0.01-0.05 solar masses.

Progenitor eruption ~100 years prior suggests an LBV star as the progenitor.

Abstract

This paper presents late-time near-infrared and {\it Spitzer} mid-infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations of warm dust in the Type IIn SN 2005ip in NGC 2906. The spectra show evidence for two dust components with different temperatures. Spanning the peak of the thermal emission, these observations provide strong constraints on the dust mass, temperature, and luminosity, which serve as critical diagnostics for disentangling the origin and heating mechanism of each component. The results suggest the warmer dust has a mass of $\sim 5 \times 10^{-4}~$\msolar, originates from newly formed dust in the ejecta, or possibly the cool, dense shell, and is continuously heated by the circumstellar interaction. By contrast, the cooler component likely originates from a circumstellar shock echo that forms from the heating of a large, pre-existing dust shell $\sim 0.01 - 0.05$~\msolar~by the late-time circumstellar interaction. The progenitor wind velocity derived from the blue edge of the He 1 1.083 \micron~P Cygni profile indicates a progenitor eruption likely formed this dust shell $\sim$100 years prior to the supernova explosion, which is consistent with a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) progenitor star.