Resolving the puzzle of type IIP SN 2016X

TL;DR

This paper investigates the peculiar features of type IIP SN 2016X, revealing its asphericity, dust effects, and explosion parameters through hydrodynamic modeling and spectral analysis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of SN 2016X's explosion characteristics, asphericity, and dust structure, introducing new insights into its nebular phase and ejecta geometry.

Findings

SN 2016X ejected 28 solar masses with 1.7x10^51 erg energy.

The Ni-56 distribution is bipolar and inferred from H-alpha profiles.

Dust absorption is consistent with a thin disk-like structure.

Abstract

The enigmatic type IIP SN 2016X demonstrates the unprecedented asphericity in the nebular H-alpha line profile, the absence of nebular [O I] emission, and the unusual occultation effect due to the internal dust. The hydrodynamic modelling of the bolometric light curve and expansion velocities suggests that the event is an outcome of the massive star explosion that ejected 28 Msun with the kinetic energy of 1.7x10^51 erg and 0.03 Msun of radioactive Ni-56. We recover the bipolar distribution of Ni-56 from the H-alpha profile via the simulation of the emissivity produced by non-spherical Ni-56 ejecta. The conspicuous effect of the dust absorption in the H-alpha profile rules out the occultation by the dusty sphere or dusty thick disk but turns out consistent with the thin dusty disk-like structure in the plane perpendicular to the bipolar axis. We speculate that the absence of the nebular [O I] emission might originate from the significant cooling of the oxygen-rich matter mediated by CO and SiO molecules.