Numerical Modeling of the Early Light Curves of Type IIP Supernovae

Abstract

The early rise of Type IIP supernovae (SN IIP) provides important information for constraining the properties of their progenitors. This can, in turn, be compared to pre-explosion imaging constraints and stellar models to develop a more complete picture of how massive stars evolve and end their lives. Using the SuperNova Explosion Code (SNEC), we model the first 40 days of SNe IIP to better understand what constraints can be derived from their early light curves. We use two sets of red supergiant (RSG) progenitor models with zero-age main sequence masses in the range between 9 M⊙ and 20 M⊙. We find that the early properties of the light curve depend most sensitively on the radius of the progenitor, and thus provide a relation between the g-band rise time and the radius at the time of explosion. This relation will be useful for deriving constraints on progenitors from future observations, especially in cases where detailed modeling of the entire rise is not practical. When comparing to observed rise times, the radii we find are a factor of a few larger than previous semi-analytic derivations and are generally in better agreement with what is found with current stellar evolution calculations as well as direct observations of RSGs.

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