A statistical study of the environmental age of core-collapse supernovae based on VLT/MUSE integral-field-unit spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study uses VLT/MUSE spectroscopy to analyze the environmental ages of core-collapse supernovae, revealing that Type Ic supernovae are associated with younger, more massive progenitors than other types.

Contribution

It provides a large, minimally biased statistical analysis linking supernova types to their environmental ages and progenitor characteristics.

Findings

Type Ic SNe are in systematically younger environments than other CCSNe.

No significant age difference among Type II(P), IIb, and Ib SNe environments.

Type Ic SNe likely originate from higher-mass progenitors with close companions.

Abstract

We aim to understand the progenitor channels of CCSNe via a statistical study of the ages of their environments. We compiled a large and minimally biased sample of 129 CCSNe discovered by untargeted wide-field transient surveys and with archival VLT/MUSE integral-field-unit spectroscopy. We measured the local H{\alpha} luminosity within a 300-pc aperture centered on the SN explosion site as an empirical proxy for the environmental age. We find that the environments of Type II(P), IIb and Ib SNe do not show a significant age difference while Type Ic SNe are located in systematically younger environments than the other types (i.e. II $\approx$ IIb $\approx$ Ib > Ic). This is inconsistent with some previous reports of monotonically younger CCSNe environments with increasing envelope stripping (II > IIb > Ib > Ic). Our result suggests that Type Ic SNe have much younger and more massive progenitors than the other CCSN types and they likely originate from a distinct progenitor channel. The distinction between Types II(P), IIb and Ib SNe is insensitive to progenitor mass and mainly due to the different binary separation; in contrast, Type Ic SNe predominantly require much higher-mass progenitors accompanied by close companions with large mass ratios and/or much stronger stellar wind that depends sensitively on progenitor mass.