Searching for Hydrogen in Type Ib Supernovae

TL;DR

This study uses synthetic spectral modeling to investigate the presence of hydrogen in Type Ib supernovae, focusing on spectral features around 6200 Å, and explores the hydrogen shell mass differences between two supernovae.

Contribution

The paper introduces a simplified spectral modeling approach to assess hydrogen presence and quantify hydrogen shell mass in Type Ib supernovae, highlighting differences between SN 1999dn and SN 2000H.

Findings

Hydrogen is clearly detected in SN 2000H but is much less prominent in SN 1999dn.

The hydrogen shell mass is less than 0.001 solar masses in SN 1999dn.

The hydrogen shell mass is about 0.2 solar masses in SN 2000H.

Abstract

We present synthetic spectral fits of the typical Type Ib SN 1999dn and the Hydrogen Rich Ib SN 2000H using the generalized non-local thermodynamic equilibrium stellar atmospheres code \phx. We fit model spectra to five epochs of SN 1999dn ranging from ten days pre-maximum light to 17 days post-maximum light and the two earliest epochs of SN 2000H available, maximum light and six days post-maximum. Our goal is to investigate the possibility of hydrogen in Type Ib Supernovae (SNe Ib), specifically a feature around 6200\AA\ which has previously been attributed to high velocity H-alpha. In earlier work on SN 1999dn we found the most plausible alternative to H-alpha to be a blend of Si II and Fe II lines which can be adjusted to fit by increasing the metallicity. Our models are simple; they assume a powerlaw density profile with radius, homologous expansion, and solar compositions. The helium core is produced by burning 4H --> He in order to conserve nucleon number. For models with hydrogen the outer skin of the model consists of a shell of solar composition. The hydrogen mass of the standard solar composition shell is M_H less than about 0.001 times the mass of the sun in SN 1999dn and M_H less than about 0.2 times the mass of the sun for SN 2000H. Our models fit the observed spectra reasonably well, successfully reproducing most features including the characteristic He I absorptions. The hydrogen feature in SN 1999dn is clear, but much more pronounced in SN 2000H. We discuss a possible evolutionary scenario that accounts for the dichotomy in the hydrogen shell mass between these two supernovae.