Supernovae (SNe) powered by interaction with circumstellar material provide evidence for intense stellar mass loss during the final years leading up to core collapse. One of the most promising energy sources for powering this mass loss is the prodigious core fusion luminosities during late stages of stellar evolution. We have argued that during and after core neon burning, internal gravity waves excited by core convection can tap into the core fusion power and transport a super-Eddington energy flux out to the stellar envelope, potentially unbinding up to ∼ M of material. In this work, we explore the internal conditions of SN progenitors using the 1-D stellar evolution code MESA star, in search of those most susceptible to wave-driven mass loss. We focus on simple, order of magnitude considerations applicable to a wide range of progenitors. Wave-driven mass loss during core neon and oxygen fusion happens preferentially in either lower mass ( 20 M ZAMS) stars or massive, sub-solar metallicity stars. Roughly 20 per cent of the SN progenitors we survey can excite ∼ 10 46−48 erg of energy in waves that can potentially drive mass loss within a few months to a decade of core collapse. This energy can generate a circumstellar environment with 10 −3 − 1 M reaching ∼ 100 AU before explosion. We predict a correlation between the energy associated with pre-SN mass ejection and the time to core collapse, with the most intense mass loss preferentially happening closer to core collapse. During silicon burning, a 5 day long phase for our progenitor models, wave energy may inflate ∼ 10 −3 −1 M of the stellar envelope to ∼ 10 − 100s of solar radii. This suggests that some nominally compact SN progenitors (Type Ibc progenitors) will experience wave-driven radius inflation during silicon burning and will have a significantly different SN shock breakout signature than traditionally assumed. We discuss the implications of our results for the core-collapse SN mechanism, Type IIn SNe, Type IIb SNe from extended progenitors (e.g., SNe 1993j and 2011dh), and observed pre-SN outbursts in SNe 2006jc, 2009ip, and 2010mc.

We report on our early photometric and spectroscopic observations of the extremely luminous Type II supernova (SN) 2008es. With an observed peak optical magnitude of m V = 17.8 and at a redshift z = 0.213, SN 2008es had a peak absolute magnitude of M V = −22.3, making it the second most luminous SN ever observed. The photometric evolution of SN 2008es exhibits a fast decline rate (∼0.042 mag d −1 ), similar to the extremely luminous Type II-L SN 2005ap. We show that SN 2008es spectroscopically resembles the luminous Type II-L SN 1979C. Although the spectra of SN 2008es lack the narrow and intermediate-width line emission typically associated with the interaction of a SN with the circumstellar medium of its progenitor star, we argue that the extreme luminosity of SN 2008es is powered via strong interaction with a dense, optically thick circumstellar medium. The integrated bolometric luminosity of SN 2008es yields a total radiated energy at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths of 10 51 ergs. Finally, we examine the apparently anomalous rate at which the Texas Supernova Search has discovered rare kinds of supernovae, including the five most luminous supernovae observed to date, and find that their results are consistent with those of other modern SN searches.

We predict the flux and surface velocity perturbations produced by convectively excited gravity modes (g-modes) in main-sequence stars. Core convection in massive stars can excite g-modes to sufficient amplitudes to be detectable with high-precision photometry by Kepler and Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits (CoRoT), if the thickness of the convective overshoot region is 30 per cent of a pressure scale height. The g-modes manifest as excess photometric variability, with amplitudes of ∼10 μmag at frequencies 10 μHz (0.8 d −1 ) near the solar metallicity zero-age main sequence. The flux variations are largest for stars with M 5 M , but are potentially detectable down to M ∼ 2-3 M . During the main-sequence evolution, radiative damping decreases such that ever lower frequency modes reach the stellar surface and flux perturbations reach up to ∼100 μmag at the terminal-age main sequence. Using the same convective excitation model, we confirm previous predictions that solar gmodes produce surface velocity perturbations of 0.3 mm s −1 . This implies that stochastically excited g-modes are more easily detectable in the photometry of massive main-sequence stars than in the Sun.

We have recently completed a 64-night spectroscopic monitoring campaign at the Lick Observatory 3-m Shane telescope with the aim of measuring the masses of the black holes in 13 nearby (z < 0.05) Seyfert 1 galaxies with expected masses in the range ∼ 10 6 − 10 7 M ⊙ . We present here the first results from this projectthe mass of the central black hole in Arp 151. Strong variability throughout the campaign led to an exceptionally clean Hβ lag measurement in this object of 4.25 +0.68 −0.66 days in the observed frame. Coupled with the width of the Hβ emission line in the variable spectrum, we determine a black hole mass of (7.1 ± 1.2) × 10 6 M ⊙ , assuming the Onken et al. normalization for reverberation-based virial masses. We also find velocity-resolved lag information within the Hβ emission line which clearly shows infalling gas in the Hβ-emitting region. Further detailed analysis may lead to a full model of the geometry and kinematics of broad line region gas around the central black hole in Arp 151.

We investigate the pulsational stability of massive (M≳ 120 M⊙) main‐sequence stars of a range of metallicities, including primordial, Population III stars. We include a formulation of convective damping motivated by numerical simulations of the interaction between convection and periodic shear flows. We find that convective viscosity is likely strong enough to stabilize radial pulsations whenever nuclear burning (the ε‐mechanism) is the dominant source of driving. This suggests that massive main‐sequence stars with Z≲ 2 × 10−3 are pulsationally stable and are unlikely to experience pulsation‐driven mass loss on the main sequence. These conclusions are, however, sensitive to the form of the convective viscosity and highlight the need for further high‐resolution simulations of the convection–oscillation interaction. For more metal‐rich stars (Z≳ 2 × 10−3), the dominant pulsational driving arises due to the κ‐mechanism arising from the iron‐bump in opacity and is strong enough to overcome convective damping. Our results highlight that even for oscillations with periods a few orders of magnitude shorter than the outer convective turnover time, the ‘frozen‐in’ approximation for the convection–oscillation interaction is inappropriate, and convective damping should be taken into account when assessing mode stability.