Related papers: Red Supergiants as Supernova Progenitors
We present a monitoring study of SN 2004A and probable discovery of a progenitor star in pre-explosion HST images. The photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of SN 2004A show that it was a normal Type II-P which was discovered in NGC 6207…
We discuss, in the context of the single star scenario, the nature of the progenitors of Red Supergiants (RSG), of Luminous Blue Variables (LBV) and of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. These three different populations correspond to evolved phases of…
We identify red supergiants (RSGs) in our spiral neighbors M31 and M33 using near-IR (NIR) photometry complete to a luminosity limit of log L/Lo=4.0. Our archival survey data cover 5 deg^2 of M31, and 3 deg^2 for M33, and are likely…
Pulsations driven by partial ionization of hydrogen in the envelope are often considered important for driving winds from red supergiants (RSGs). In particular, it has been suggested by some authors that the pulsation growth rate in a RSG…
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…
Red supergiants are a short-lived stage in the evolution of moderately massive stars (10-25Mo), and as such their location in the H-R diagram provides an exacting test of stellar evolutionary models. Since massive star evolution is strongly…
Recent observational studies of core-collapse supernovae suggest only stars with zero-age main sequence masses smaller than $16$-$18\ M_\odot$ explode when they are red supergiants, producing type IIP supernovae. This may imply that more…
Stars between about 4 and 25 solar masses spend a significant fraction of their post-main sequence lifetime as red supergiants (RSGs) and lose material via stellar winds during this period. For RSGs more massive than 10 solar masses, this…
We present VLA observations of 16 Type IIn and Type II-L supernovae (SNe IIn and SNe II-L) at ~1000--7000 days after explosion, probing circumstellar matter (CSM) at distances >10^16 cm from the progenitor corresponding to mass-loss over…
Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are catastrophic astrophysical phenomena that occur during the last evolutionary stages of massive stars having initial masses of around 8 M$_{\odot}$ or more. These calamitous events play a pivotal role in…
Using observed star formation rates at redshifts up to z ~ 5, we calculate cosmic supernova rates for core collapse and Type Ia supernovae. Together with supernova statistics and detailed light curves, we estimate the number of supernovae,…
We use different assumptions for the combination of dust extinction and star formation up to redshifts z >= 5, as well as detailed modeling of supernova properties, to estimate the number of supernovae that should be observable with various…
We present observations of SN 2020fqv, a Virgo-cluster Type II core-collapse supernova (CCSN) with a high temporal resolution light curve from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) covering the time of explosion; ultraviolet (UV)…
The collapse of baryons into extremely massive stars with masses exceeding 10^4 M_Sun in a small fraction of protogalaxies at z > 10 is a promising candidate for the origin of supermassive black holes, some of which grow to a billion solar…
Linking supernovae to their progenitors is a powerful method for furthering our understanding of the physical origin of their observed differences, while at the same time testing stellar evolution theory. In this second study of a series of…
We investigate the early-time light-curves of a large sample of 223 type II supernovae (SNe) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Supernova Legacy Survey. Having a cadence of a few days and sufficient non-detections prior to explosion,…
Galaxies in the Local Group span a factor of 15 in metallicity, ranging from the super-solar M31 to the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM) galaxy, which is the lowest-metallicity (0.1xZsun) Local Group galaxy currently forming stars. Studies of…
Recent comparative observations of long duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) and core collapse supernovae (cc SN) host galaxies demonstrate that these two, highly energetic transient events are distributed very differently upon their hosts.…
Early observations of supernovae (SNe) indicate that enhanced mass loss and pre-SN outbursts may occur in progenitors of many types of SNe. We investigate the role of energy transport via waves driven by vigorous convection during…
Growing theoretical evidence suggests that the first generation of stars may have been quite massive (~100-300 solar masses). If they retain their high mass until death, such stars will, after about 3Myr, make pair-instability supernovae.…