Wave-driven Mass Loss of Stripped Envelope Massive Stars: Progenitor-dependence, Mass Ejection, and Supernovae

Abstract

The discovery of rapidly rising and fading supernovae powered by circumstellar interaction has suggested the pre-supernova mass eruption phase as a critical phenomenon in massive star evolution. It is important to understand the mass and radial extent of the circumstellar medium (CSM) from theoretically predicted mass ejection mechanisms. In this work, we study the wave heating process in massive hydrogen-poor stars, running a suite of stellar models in order to predict the wave energy and pre-explosion timescale of surface energy deposition. We survey stellar models with main-sequence progenitor masses from 20–70 M_⊙ and metallicity from 0.002–0.02. Most of these models predict that less than ∼10⁴⁷ erg is deposited in the envelope, with the majority of the energy deposited in the last week of stellar evolution. This translates to CSM masses less than ∼10⁻² M_⊙ that extend to less than ∼10¹⁴ cm, too small to greatly impact the light curves or spectra of the subsequent supernovae, except perhaps during the shock breakout phase. However, a few models predict somewhat higher wave energy fluxes, for which we perform hydrodynamical simulations of the mass ejection process. Radiative transfer simulations of the subsequent supernovae predict a bright but brief shock-cooling phase that could be detected in some Type Ib/c supernovae if they are discovered within a couple days of explosion.

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