The effects of dust on the optical and infrared evolution of SN 2004et

TL;DR

This study analyzes multi-epoch optical and infrared data of SN 2004et to understand dust formation and its impact on the supernova's evolution, revealing increasing circumstellar extinction and quantifying dust mass growth over time.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multi-wavelength analysis of dust formation in SN 2004et, combining optical spectra, infrared imaging, and radiative transfer modeling to quantify dust mass and distribution.

Findings

Dust mass increased from 8x10^{-5} to 1.5x10^{-3} solar masses between days 300 and 690.

Circumstellar extinction grew to 0.8-1.5 magnitudes in V-band by day 690.

Clumped dust models with specific compositions fit the observed spectral energy distributions.

Abstract

We present an analysis of multi-epoch observations of the Type II-P supernova SN 2004et. New and archival optical spectra of SN 2004et are used to study the evolution of the Halpha and [O I] 6300A line profiles between days 259 and 646. Mid-infrared imaging was carried out between 2004 to 2010. We include Spitzer `warm' mission photometry at 3.6 and 4.5um obtained on days 1779, 1931 and 2151, along with ground-based and HST optical and near-infrared observations obtained between days 79 and 1803. Multi-wavelength light curves are presented, as well as optical-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for multiple epochs. Starting from about day 300, the optical light curves provide evidence for an increasing amount of circumstellar extinction attributable to newly formed dust, with the additional extinction reaching 0.8-1.5 magnitudes in the V-band by day 690. The overall SEDs were fitted with multiple blackbody components, in order to investigate the luminosity evolution of the supernova, and then with Monte Carlo radiative transfer models using smooth or clumpy dust distributions, in order to estimate how much new dust condensed in the ejecta. The luminosity evolution was consistent with the decay of 56Co in the ejecta up until about day 690, after which an additional emission source is required, in agreement with the findings of Kotak et al. (2009). Clumped dust density distributions consisting of 20% amorphous carbons and 80% silicates by mass were able to match the observed optical and infrared SEDs, with dust masses that increased from 8x10^{-5} Msun on day 300 to 1.5x10^{-3} Msun on day 690, still significantly lower than the values needed for core collapse supernovae to make a significant contribution to the dust enrichment of galaxies.