A Systematic Study of Mid-Infrared Emission from Core-Collapse Supernovae with SPIRITS

TL;DR

This study systematically analyzes mid-infrared emission from 141 nearby supernovae using Spitzer data, revealing dust properties, late-time detections, and CSM interactions, advancing understanding of supernova dust evolution and circumstellar environments.

Contribution

First comprehensive mid-IR survey of a large supernova sample, providing new insights into dust formation, destruction, and circumstellar interactions over extended periods.

Findings

Detection of late-time mid-IR emission in several supernovae.

Observation of dust mass changes indicating formation and destruction episodes.

Identification of CSM interactions in stripped-envelope supernovae.

Abstract

We present a systematic study of mid-infrared (mid-IR) emission from 141 nearby supernovae (SNe) observed with the InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC) on Spitzer.These SNe reside in one of the 190 galaxies within 20 Mpc drawn from the ongoing SPIRITS program. We detect 8 Type Ia SNe and 36 core-collapse SNe. All Type I SNe become undetectable within 3 years of explosion. About 22$\pm$11% of Type II SNe continue to be detected at late-times. Dust luminosity, temperature, and a lower liit on mass are obtained by fitting the SED using photometry with IRAC bands 1 and 2. The mass estimate does not distinguish between pre-existing and newly produced dust. We observe warm dust masses between $10^{-2}$ and $10^{-6}$ $\rm M_{\odot}$ and dust temperatures from 200 K to 1280 K.We present detailed case studies of two extreme Type II-P SNe: SN 2011ja and 2014bi. SN 2011ja was over-luminous ([4.5] = -15.6 mag) at 900 days post-explosion accompanied by the growing dust mass. This suggests either an episode of dust formation or an intensifying CSM interactions heating up pre-existing dust. SN 2014bi showed a factor of 10 decrease in dust mass over one month suggesting either an episode of dust destruction or a fading source of dust heating. A rebrightening of the Type Ib SN 2014C is observed and attributed to CSM interactions. This observation adds to a small number of stripped-envelope SNe that have mid-IR excess. The observations suggest that the CSM shell around SN 2014C is originated from an LBV-like eruption roughly 100 years before the explosion. We also report detections of SN1974E, 1979C, 1980K, 1986J, and 1993J detected more than 20 years post-explosion. The number of outlying SNe identified in this work demonstrates the power of late time mid-IR observations of a large sample of SNe to identify events with unusual evolution.