Interaction of a Supernova with a Circumstellar Disk

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamics simulations to explore how supernovae interacting with disk-shaped circumstellar material affect observable light curves and spectral features, revealing potential explanations for super-luminous supernovae.

Contribution

It introduces analytic formulas and simulation results for supernova interactions with disk-like circumstellar media, extending beyond traditional spherical models.

Findings

Modified scaling laws describe shock propagation in disks.

Derived approximate bolometric light curves for supernova-disk interactions.

Certain configurations produce luminosities comparable to super-luminous supernovae.

Abstract

Interaction between supernova (SN) ejecta and a dense circumstellar medium (CSM) can power a luminous light curve and create narrow emission lines in the spectra. While theoretical studies of interaction often assume a spherically symmetric CSM, there are observational indications that the gas surrounding some SN has a disk-like geometry. Here, we use moving-mesh hydrodynamics simulations to study the interaction of a SN with a disk and determine how the dynamics and observable signatures may depend on the disk mass, thickness, and radial extent. We find that simple modifications to standard spherically-symmetric scaling laws can be used to describe the propagation and heating rate of the interaction shock. We use the resulting shock heating rates to derive approximate bolometric light curves, and provide analytic formulas that can be used to generate simple synthetic light curves for general supernova-disk interactions. For certain disk parameters and explosion energies, we are able to produce luminosities akin to those seen in super-luminous SN. Because the SN ejecta can flow around and engulf the CSM disk, the interaction region may become embedded and from certain viewing angles the narrow emission lines indicative of interaction may be hidden.