The disappearance of the progenitor of SN 2012aw in late-time imaging

TL;DR

This study confirms the disappearance of the supernova progenitor in late-time near-infrared imaging, refining its properties and linking it to a 12.5 solar mass red supergiant star.

Contribution

The paper provides new late-time near-infrared observations that confirm the progenitor's disappearance and accurately determine its luminosity and mass, improving understanding of supernova progenitors.

Findings

Progenitor disappeared in late-time imaging.

Progenitor consistent with a 12.5 solar mass red supergiant.

Marginal detection in H-band with H=19.67 mag.

Abstract

We present new late-time near-infrared imaging of the site of the nearby core-collapse supernova SN 2012aw, confirming the disappearance of the point source identified by Fraser et al. (2012) and Van Dyk et al. (2012) as a candidate progenitor in both J and Ks filters. We re-measure the progenitor photometry, and find that both the J and Ks magnitudes of the source are consistent with those quoted in the literature. We also recover a marginal detection of the progenitor in H-band, for which we measure H=19.67+/-0.40 mag. Comparing the luminosity of the progenitor to stellar evolutionary models, SN 2012aw appears to have resulted from the explosion of a 12.5+/-1.5 Msun red supergiant.