The dusty red supergiant progenitor and the local environment of the Type II SN 2023ixf in M101

TL;DR

This study characterizes the progenitor of the nearby Type II supernova 2023ixf in M101, revealing it as a massive red supergiant with detailed properties derived from multi-wavelength data and environmental analysis.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed modeling of SN 2023ixf's progenitor using multi-wavelength SED fitting and environmental star formation history, clarifying its mass and circumstellar environment.

Findings

Progenitor is a 16.2–17.4 Msun red supergiant with C-rich dust.

Mass-loss rate before explosion is approximately 2×10^{-4} Msun/yr.

Progenitor's initial mass estimated at 17–19 Msun from environment analysis.

Abstract

As one of the closest supernovae (SNe) in the last decade, SN 2023ixf is an unprecedented target to investigate the progenitor star that exploded. However, there is still significant uncertainty in the reported progenitor properties. In this work, we present a detailed study of the progenitor of SN 2023ixf with two independent analyses. We first modelled its spectral energy distribution (SED) based on Hubble Space Telescope optical, Spitzer mid-infrared (IR), and ground-based near-IR data. We find that stellar pulsation and circumstellar extinction have great impacts on SED fitting, and the result suggests a relatively massive red supergiant (RSG) surrounded by C-rich dust with an initial mass of 16.2--17.4 Msun. The corresponding rate of mass-loss occurring at least 3 years before the SN explosion is about $2 \times 10^{-4} M_\odot$yr$^{-1}$. We also derived the star formation history of the SN environment based on resolved stellar populations, and the most recent star-forming epoch corresponds to a progenitor initial mass of 17--19 Msun, in agreement with that from our SED fitting. Therefore, we conclude that the progenitor of SN 2023ixf is close to the high-mass end for Type II SN progenitors.