EVIDENCE FOR A COMPACT WOLF–RAYET PROGENITOR FOR THE TYPE Ic SUPERNOVA PTF 10vgv
/ Authors
A. Corsi, E. Ofek, A. Gal-yam, D. Frail, D. Poznanski, P. Mazzali, S. Kulkarni, M. Kasliwal, I. Arcavi, S. Ben-Ami
and 16 more authors
S. Cenko, A. Filippenko, D. Fox, A. Horesh, J. L. Howell, I. Kleiser, E. Nakar, Itay Rabinak, R. Sari, J. Silverman, Dong Xu, J. Bloom, N. M. Law, P. Nugent, P. Nugent, R. Quimby
/ Abstract
We present the discovery of PTF 10vgv, a Type Ic supernova (SN) detected by the Palomar Transient Factory, using the Palomar 48 inch telescope (P48). R-band observations of the PTF 10vgv field with P48 probe the SN emission from its very early phases (about two weeks before R-band maximum) and set limits on its flux in the week prior to the discovery. Our sensitive upper limits and early detections constrain the post-shock-breakout luminosity of this event. Via comparison to numerical (analytical) models, we derive an upper-limit of R ≲ 4.5 R☉ (R ≲ 1 R☉) on the radius of the progenitor star, a direct indication in favor of a compact Wolf–Rayet star. Applying a similar analysis to the historical observations of SN 1994I yields R ≲ 1/4 R☉ for the progenitor radius of this SN.
Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters