A Physical Model of Delayed Rebrightenings in Shock-interacting Supernovae without Narrow Line Emission

TL;DR

This paper presents a physical model explaining delayed supernova rebrightenings without spectral lines, attributing them to sound wave interactions in the post-shock gas, challenging standard interaction models.

Contribution

The study introduces a linear perturbation theory model showing how finite sound crossing times cause delayed rebrightenings without spectral line formation in supernovae.

Findings

Delayed rebrightenings can occur without spectral lines due to sound wave effects.

Post-shock gas can become turbulent and form reverse shocks.

Supernova blastwaves are inherently unstable to perturbations.

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae can display evidence of interaction with pre-existing, circumstellar shells of material by rebrightening and forming spectral lines, and can even change types as Hydrogen appears in previously Hydrogen-poor spectra. However, a recently observed core-collapse supernova -- SN 2019tsf -- was found to brighten after roughly 100 days after it was first observed, suggesting that the supernova ejecta was interacting with surrounding material, but it lacked any observable emission lines and thereby challenged the standard supernova-interaction picture. We show through linear perturbation theory that delayed rebrightenings without the formation of spectral lines are generated as a consequence of the finite sound crossing time of the post-shock gas left in the wake of a supernova explosion. In particular, we demonstrate that sound waves -- generated in the post-shock flow as a consequence of the interaction between a shock and a density enhancement -- traverse the shocked ejecta and impinge upon the shock from behind in a finite time, generating sudden changes in the shock properties in the absence of ambient density enhancements. We also show that a blastwave dominated by gas pressure and propagating in a wind-fed medium is unstable from the standpoint that small perturbations lead to the formation of reverse shocks within the post-shock flow, implying that the gas within the inner regions of these blastwaves should be highly turbulent.