Constraints for the Progenitor Masses of 17 Historic Core-Collapse Supernovae

TL;DR

This study uses archival HST data to estimate the progenitor masses of 17 historic core-collapse supernovae by analyzing surrounding stellar populations, providing new constraints especially for cases lacking direct imaging measurements.

Contribution

The paper introduces a method to determine supernova progenitor masses from stellar population analysis, reducing reliance on assumptions about binarity and dust, and applies it to 17 supernovae, including 11 without prior estimates.

Findings

Progenitor masses are consistent with previous direct imaging measurements.

Measurements suggest most progenitors could be below 20 solar masses.

Uncertainties remain large, allowing for a wide range of progenitor masses.

Abstract

Using resolved stellar photometry measured from archival HST imaging, we generate color-magnitude diagrams of the stars within 50 pc of the locations of historic core-collapse supernovae that took place in galaxies within 8 Mpc. We fit these color-magnitude distributions with stellar evolution models to determine the best-fit age distribution of the young population. We then translate these age distributions into probability distributions for the progenitor mass of each SNe. The measurements are anchored by the main-sequence stars surrounding the event, making them less sensitive to assumptions about binarity, post-main-sequence evolution, or circumstellar dust. We demonstrate that, in cases where the literature contains masses that have been measured from direct imaging, our measurements are consistent with (but less precise than) these measurements. Using this technique, we constrain the progenitor masses of 17 historic SNe, 11 of which have no previous estimates from direct imaging. Our measurements still allow the possibility that all SNe progenitor masses are <20 M_sun. However, the large uncertainties for the highest-mass progenitors also allow the possibility of no upper-mass cutoff.