Related papers: Massive stars in their death-throes
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play important roles in our study of the expansion and acceleration of the Universe, but because we do not know the exact nature or natures of the progenitors, there is a systematic uncertainty that must be…
We compute an extensive set of early-time spectra of supernovae interacting with circumstellar material using the radiative transfer code CMFGEN. Our models are applicable to events observed from 1 to a few days after explosion. Using these…
It has been suggested that whether a star explodes or not, and what kind of explosion properties it shows, is strongly dependent on the progenitor's core structure. We present the results from 101 axisymmetric core-collapse supernova…
Although there is a nearly universal agreement that type Ia supernovae are associated with the thermonuclear disruption of a CO white dwarf, the exact nature of their progenitors is still unknown. The single degenerate scenario envisages a…
In recent years, wide-field sky surveys providing deep multi-band imaging have presented a new path for indirectly characterizing the progenitor populations of core-collapse supernovae (SN): systematic light curve studies. We assemble a set…
Those massive stars that, during their deaths, give rise to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) must be endowed with an unusually large amount of angular momentum in their inner regions, one to two orders of magnitude greater than the ones that make…
We have performed the first calculations to follow the evolution of all stable nuclei and their radioactive progenitors in a finely-zoned stellar model computed from the onset of central hydrogen burning through explosion as a Type II…
Type Ia supernovae are vital to our understanding of the Universe due to their use in measuring cosmological distances and their significance in enriching the interstellar medium with heavy elements. They are understood to be the…
Masses and progenitor evolutionary states of TypeII supernovae remain almost unconstrained by direct observations. Only one robust observation of a progenitor (SN1987A) and one plausible observation (SN1993J) are available. Neither matched…
One method of discriminating between the many Type Ia progenitor scenarios is by searching for contaminating hydrogen and helium stripped from the companion star. We present several high-resolution 2-D numerical simulations of the impact of…
We find that spectroscopically peculiar subluminous SNe Ia come from an old population. Of the sixteen subluminous SNe Ia known, ten are found in E/S0 galaxies, and the remainder are found in early-type spirals. The probability that this is…
Supernovae (SNe) were long suspected as possible progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The arguments relied on circumstantial evidence. Several recent GRBs, notably GRB 030329, have provided direct, spectroscopic evidence that SNe and…
Supernovae (SNe), the catastrophic end of stars' lives, are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe. Mapping the aftermath of the explosions to the properties of pre-SN stars is challenging due to the lack of knowledge about the…
Direct identification of the progenitors of supernovae (SNe) is rare because of the required spatial resolution and depth of the archival data prior to the SN explosions. Here we report on the identification of the progenitors of two nearby…
A number of supernovae, classified as Type II, show remarkably peculiar properties such as an extremely low expansion velocity and an extraordinarily small amount of $^{56}$Ni in the ejecta. We present a joint analysis of the available…
In several recent observational studies on Type Ib/c supernovae (SNe Ib/c), the inferred ejecta masses have a peak value of 2.0 -- 4.0 $M_\odot$, in favor of the binary scenario for their progenitors rather than the Wolf-Rayet star…
The massive star which underwent core-collapse to produce SN1993J was identified as a non-variable red supergiant star in images of the galaxy M81 taken before explosion. However the stellar source showed an excess in UV and B-band colours…
SN1991bg-like supernovae are a distinct subclass of thermonuclear supernovae (SNe Ia). Their spectral and photometric peculiarities indicate their progenitors and explosion mechanism differ from `normal' SNe Ia. One method of determining…
Almost since the beginning, massive stars and their resultant supernovae have played a crucial role in the Universe. These objects produce tremendous amounts of energy and new, heavy elements that enrich galaxies, encourage new stars to…
We introduce the first synthetic light-curve model set of Type IIP supernovae exploded within circumstellar media in which the acceleration of the red supergiant winds is taken into account. Because wind acceleration makes the wind…