Chemical stratification in a long gamma-ray burst cocoon and early-time spectral signatures of supernovae associated with gamma-ray bursts

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamic simulations to explore how gamma-ray burst jets influence the chemical composition and structure of supernova ejecta, providing insights into early spectral signatures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that jet-induced mixing can explain observed heavy metals in supernova ejecta and compares different jet models to understand their effects.

Findings

Powerful jets produce high-velocity, metal-rich ejecta.

Jet interactions lead to diverse chemical signatures in supernova remnants.

Simulations match early-time spectral observations of GRB-associated supernovae.

Abstract

We present the results of 3D hydrodynamic simulations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jet emanating from a massive star with a particular focus on the formation of high-velocity quasi-spherical ejecta and the jet-induced chemical mixing. Recent early-time optical observations of supernovae associated with GRBs (e.g., GRB 171205A/SN 2017iuk) indicate a considerable amount of heavy metals in the high-velocity outer layers of the ejecta. Using our jet simulations, we show that the density and chemical structure of the outer ejecta implied by observations can be naturally reproduced by a powerful jet penetrating the progenitor star. We consider three representative jet models with a stripped massive star, a standard jet, a weak jet, and a jet choked by an extended circumstellar medium, to clarify the differences in the dynamical evolution and the chemical properties of the ejected materials. The standard jet successfully penetrates the progenitor star and creates a quasi-spherical ejecta component (cocoon). The jet-induced mixing significantly contaminates the cocoon with heavy elements that have been otherwise embedded in the inner layer of the ejecta. The weak and choked jet models fail to produce an ultra-relativistic jet but produce a quasi-spherical cocoon with different chemical properties. We discuss the impact of the different jet-star interactions on the expected early-time electromagnetic signatures of long GRBs and how to probe the jet dynamics from observations.