SN 2013ab : A normal type IIP supernova in NGC 5669

TL;DR

This study provides detailed photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2013ab, a typical type IIP supernova, analyzing its light curve, spectra, and progenitor characteristics to enhance understanding of such stellar explosions.

Contribution

It offers comprehensive observational data and modeling of SN 2013ab, including progenitor properties, explosion energy, and nickel synthesis, contributing to the understanding of type IIP supernovae.

Findings

SN 2013ab has an 80-day plateau with a mid-plateau magnitude of -16.7.

The progenitor was a red supergiant with an initial radius of ~800 R_sun.

The explosion synthesized approximately 0.064 M_sun of ^56Ni.

Abstract

We present densely-sampled ultraviolet/optical photometric and low-resolution optical spectroscopic observations of the type IIP supernova 2013ab in the nearby ($\sim$24 Mpc) galaxy NGC 5669, from 2 to 190d after explosion. Continuous photometric observations, with the cadence of typically a day to one week, were acquired with the 1-2m class telescopes in the LCOGT network, ARIES telescopes in India and various other telescopes around the globe. The light curve and spectra suggest that the SN is a normal type IIP event with a plateau duration of $ \sim80 $ days with mid plateau absolute visual magnitude of -16.7, although with a steeper decline during the plateau (0.92 mag 100 d$ ^{-1} $ in $ V $ band) relative to other archetypal SNe of similar brightness. The velocity profile of SN 2013ab shows striking resemblance with those of SNe 1999em and 2012aw. Following the Rabinak & Waxman (2011) prescription, the initial temperature evolution of the SN emission allows us to estimate the progenitor radius to be $ \sim $ 800 R$_{\odot}$, indicating that the SN originated from a red supergiant star. The distance to the SN host galaxy is estimated to be 24.3 Mpc from expanding photosphere method (EPM). From our observations, we estimate that 0.064 M$_{\odot}$ of $^{56}$Ni was synthesized in the explosion. General relativistic, radiation hydrodynamical modeling of the SN infers an explosion energy of $ 0.35\times10^{51} $ erg, a progenitor mass (at the time of explosion) of $ \sim9 $ M$_{\odot}$ and an initial radius of $ \sim600 $ R$_{\odot}$.