Physical Properties of Type II Supernovae Inferred from ZTF and ATLAS Photometric Data

TL;DR

This study analyzes 186 Type II supernova light curves from ZTF and ATLAS, inferring physical parameters using hydrodynamic models, revealing low-mass progenitors with dense circumstellar matter and demonstrating improved redshift estimation from supernova data.

Contribution

Introduces a method to infer supernova physical parameters from light curves, including progenitor mass, explosion energy, and CSM properties, with improved redshift accuracy over host galaxy estimates.

Findings

Low-mass progenitors (<14 M_sun) favored

Dense CSM with high mass-loss rates identified

Supernova-based redshift estimates are more accurate

Abstract

We report an analysis of a sample of 186 spectroscopically confirmed Type II supernova (SN) light curves (LCs) obtained from a combination of Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) observations. We implement a method to infer physical parameters from these LCs using hydrodynamic models that take into account the progenitor mass, the explosion energy, and the presence of circumstellar matter (CSM). The CSM is modelled via the mass loss rate, wind acceleration at the surface of the progenitor star with a $\beta$ velocity law, and the CSM radius. We also infer the time of explosion, attenuation (A$_V$), and the redshift for each SN. Our results favor low-mass progenitor stars (M$_{ZAMS}$\,$<$14\,$M_\odot$) with a dense CSM ($\dot{M}$ $>$ 10$^{-3}$ [M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$], a CSM radius of $\sim$ 10$^{15}$ cm, and $\beta$ $>$ 2). Additionally, we find that the redshift inferred from the supernova LCs is significantly more accurate than that inferred using the host galaxy photometric redshift, suggesting that this method could be used to infer more accurate host galaxy redshifts from large samples of SNe II in the LSST era. Lastly, we compare our results with similar works from the literature.