Numerical Modeling of the Early Light Curves of Type IIP Supernovae

TL;DR

This study models the early light curves of Type IIP supernovae using SNEC to relate their rise times to progenitor star radii, aiding in constraining progenitor properties from observations.

Contribution

It establishes a new relation between early light curve rise time and progenitor radius, improving constraints on supernova progenitors from early observations.

Findings

Early light curve rise time depends mainly on progenitor radius.

Derived radii are larger than previous semi-analytic estimates.

Results align better with stellar evolution models.

Abstract

The early rise of Type IIP supernovae (SN IIP) provides important information for constraining the properties of their progenitors. This can in turn be compared to pre-explosion imaging constraints and stellar models to develop a more complete picture of how massive stars evolve and end their lives. Using the SuperNova Explosion Code (SNEC), we model the first 40 days of SNe IIP to better understand what constraints can be derived from their early light curves. We use two sets of red supergiant progenitor models with zero-age main sequence masses in the range between 9 Msol and 20 Msol. We find that the early properties of the light curve depend most sensitively on the radius of the progenitor, and thus provide a relation between the g-band rise time and the radius at the time of explosion. This relation will be useful for deriving constraints on progenitors from future observations, especially in cases where detailed modeling of the entire rise is not practical. When comparing to observed rise times, the radii we find are a factor of a few larger than previous semi-analytic derivations and generally in better agreement with what is found with current stellar evolution calculations.