Late-Time Optical and X-ray Emission Evolution of the Oxygen-Rich SN 1996cr

TL;DR

This study presents late-time optical and X-ray observations of supernova SN 1996cr, revealing evolving spectral features and declining X-ray luminosity, providing insights into the progenitor's structure and circumstellar environment.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed late-time optical and X-ray spectral analysis of SN 1996cr, highlighting changes in emission lines and shock interaction with the environment, and revises the progenitor classification.

Findings

Optical spectra show broad, double-peaked emission lines with velocity of ±4500 km/s.

X-ray luminosity steadily declines, indicating shock breakout into lower density environment.

Progenitor likely was a partially stripped star, suggesting a SN IIb/Ib rather than IIn.

Abstract

When the ejecta of supernovae interact with the progenitor star's circumstellar environment, a strong shock is driven back into the ejecta, causing the material to become bright optically and in X-rays. Most notably, as the shock traverses the H-rich envelope, it begins to interact with metal rich material. Thus, continued monitoring of bright and nearby supernovae provides valuable clues about both the progenitor structure and its pre-supernova evolution. Here we present late-time, multi-epoch optical and Chandra} X-ray spectra of the core-collapse supernova SN 1996cr. Magellan IMACS optical spectra taken in July 2017 and August 2021 show a very different spectrum from that seen in 2006 with broad, double-peaked optical emission lines of oxygen, argon, and sulfur with expansion velocities of $\pm 4500$ km s$^{-1}$. Red-shifted emission components are considerably fainter compared to the blue-shifted components, presumably due to internal extinction from dust in the supernova ejecta. Broad $\pm 2400$ km s$^{-1}$ H$\alpha$ is also seen which we infer is shocked progenitor pre-SN mass-loss, H-rich material. Chandra data indicate a slow but steady decline in overall X-ray luminosity, suggesting that the forward shock has broken through any circumstellar shell or torus which is inferred from prior deep Chandra ACIS-S/HETG observations. The X-ray properties are consistent with what is expected from a shock breaking out into a lower density environment. Though originally identified as a SN IIn, based upon late time optical emission line spectra, we argue that the SN 1996cr progenitor was partially or highly stripped, suggesting a SN IIb/Ib.