Circumstellar dust as a solution to the red supergiant supernova progenitor problem

TL;DR

This paper suggests that circumstellar dust causes underestimation of red supergiant luminosities, explaining the apparent lack of high-mass Type IIP supernova progenitors and aligning observations with stellar evolution models.

Contribution

It demonstrates that accounting for dust extinction in red supergiants resolves the supernova progenitor mass discrepancy.

Findings

Maximum progenitor mass estimated at 21^{+2}_{-1} M_sun

Reconciliation of observed progenitor masses with stellar evolution models

Highlighting the importance of circumstellar dust in progenitor observations

Abstract

We investigate the red supergiant problem: the apparent dearth of Type IIP supernova progenitors with masses between 16 and 30 M_sun. Although red supergiants with masses in this range have been observed, none have been identified as progenitors in pre-explosion images. We show that by failing to take into account the additional extinction resulting from the dust produced in the red supergiant winds, we risk underestimating the luminosity of the most massive red supergiants at the end of their lives. We estimate the initial masses of all Type IIP progenitors for which observations exist and analyse the resulting population. We find that the most likely maximum mass for a Type IIP progenitor is 21^{+2}_{-1} M_sun. This is in closer agreement with the limit predicted from single star evolution models.