Related papers: The pair-instability origin of supernova 2023vbw
GW170817 is the very first observation of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of two compact objects in the mass range of neutron stars, accompanied by electromagnetic counterparts, and offers an opportunity to directly…
The final evolution of stars in the mass range 70 - 140 solar masses is explored. Depending upon their mass loss history and rotation rates, these stars will end their lives as pulsational pair-instability supernovae producing a great…
Core-collapse supernova (SN) explosions mark the end of the tumultuous life of massive stars. Determining the nature of their progenitors is a crucial step towards understanding the properties of SNe. Until recently, no progenitor has been…
Massive Population III stars from 140 - 260 solar masses ended their lives as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe), the most energetic thermonuclear explosions in the universe. Detection of these explosions could directly constrain the…
We present optical and ultraviolet observations of nearby type Ic supernova SN 2017ein as well as detailed analysis of its progenitor properties from both the early-time observations and the prediscovery Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images.…
We follow the evolution of helium stars of initial mass $(2.2 - 2.5) M_\odot$, and show that they undergo off-center carbon burning, which leaves behind ${\mathbf \sim 0.01 M_\odot}$ of unburnt carbon in the inner part of the core. When the…
Massive stars in binaries can give rise to extreme phenomena such as X-ray binaries and gravitational wave sources after one or both stars end their lives as core-collapse supernovae. Stars in close orbit around a stellar or compact…
We present far- and near-ultraviolet (UV) spectra of the Type II supernovae (SNe) SN~2023ixf from days 199 to 722 and SN~2024ggi at days 41 and 232. Both supernovae show broad, blueshifted, and asymmetric UV emission lines with an initial…
Weak G-band (wGb) stars are very peculiar red giants almost devoided of carbon and often mildly enriched in lithium. Despite their very puzzling abundance patterns, very few detailed spectroscopic studies existed up to a few years ago,…
Observed supermassive black holes in the early universe have several proposed formation channels, in part because most of these channels are difficult to probe. One of the more promising channels, the direct collapse of a supermassive star,…
A detailed study spanning approximately a year has been conducted on the Type Ib supernova 2007Y. Imaging was obtained from X-ray to radio wavelengths, and a comprehensive set of multi-band (w2m2w1u'g'r'i'UBVYJHKs) light curves and optical…
Superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) remain an intriguing topic in supernova (SN) transient astronomy. While the majority of SLSNe are shown to be explained by energy streaming from the newly born magnetar, there are others which are powered by…
The fraction of stars which are in binaries or triples at the time of stellar death and the fraction of these systems which survive the supernova (SN) explosion are crucial constraints for evolution models and predictions for gravitational…
I use photometry and spectroscopy data for 24 Type II plateau supernovae to examine their observed and physical properties. This dataset shows that these objects encompass a wide range of ~5 mag in their plateau luminosities, their…
We present the densely sampled early light curve of the Type II supernova (SN) 2023ixf, first observed within hours of explosion in the nearby Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101; 6.7 Mpc). Comparing these data to recently updated models of…
Massive stars with a core-halo structure are interesting objects for stellar physics and hydrodynamics. Using simulations for stellar evolution, radiation hydrodynamics, and radiative transfer, we study the explosion of stars with an…
A rare class of `super-luminous' supernovae that are about ten or more times more luminous at their peaks than other types of luminous supernovae has recently been found at low to intermediate redshifts. A small subset of these events have…
We present observational evidence that an aspherical supernova explosion could have occurred in the First stars in the early universe. Our results are based on the First determination of a Zn abundance in a Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic…
In hydrogen-rich (H-rich) Supernova (SN) events, the collision between the H-rich ejecta and the Circum-Stellar Medium (CSM) can accelerate particles and produce high-energy neutrinos (HE-$\nu$, TeV-PeV) through proton-proton inelastic…
A thermonuclear explosion triggered by a helium-shell detonation on a carbon-oxygen white dwarf core has been predicted to have strong UV line blanketing at early times due to the iron-group elements produced during helium-shell burning. We…