Three-dimensional mixing and light curves: constraints on the progenitor of supernova 1987A

Abstract

With the same method as used previously, we investigate neutrino-driven explosions of a larger sample of blue supergiant models. The blue supergiants were evolved as single-star progenitors. The larger sample includes three new presupernova stars. The results are compared with light-curve observations of the peculiar type IIP supernova 1987A (SN 1987A). The explosions were modeled in 3D with the neutrino-hydrodynamics code Prometheus-HOTB, and light-curve calculations were performed in spherical symmetry with the radiation-hydrodynamics code Crab, starting at a stage of nearly homologous expansion. Our results confirm the basic findings of the previous work: 3D neutrino-driven explosions with SN 1987A-like energies synthesize an amount of 56 Ni that is consistent with the radioactive tail of the light curve. Moreover, the models mix hydrogen inward to minimum velocities below 400 km s −1 as required by spectral observations and a 3D analysis of molecular hydrogen in SN 1987A. Hydrodynamic simulations with the new progenitor models, which possess smaller radii than the older ones, show much better agreement between calculated and observed light curves in the initial luminosity peak and during the first 20 days. A set of explosions with similar energies demonstrated that a high growth factor of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities at the (C+O)/He composition interface combined with a weak interaction of fast Rayleigh-Taylor plumes, where the reverse shock occurs below the He/H interface, provides a sufficient condition for efficient outward mixing of 56 Ni into the hydrogen envelope. This condition is realized to the required extent only in one of the older stellar models, which yielded a maximum velocity of around 3000 km s −1 for the bulk of ejected 56 Ni, but failed to reproduce the helium-core mass of 6 M inferred from the absolute luminosity of the presupernova star. We conclude that none of the single-star progenitor models proposed for SN 1987A to date satisfies all constraints set by observations.

Hydrodynamic simulations unravel the progenitor-supernova-remnant connection in SN 1987A

“…Studies that considered progenitor BSGs that evolved as single stars suggest explosion energies in the range 1.2 − 1.5 × 10 51 erg (e.g. Utrobin et al 2019). Studies that modeled explosions of BSGs from binary mergers (analogous to model B18.3) found slightly higher values, E exp ≈ 1.7 × 10 51 erg (Menon et al 2019).…”

High Angular Resolution ALMA Images of Dust and Molecules in the SN 1987A Ejecta

“…However, this tension between our proposed C-rich grain formation and the lack of C-rich grains "grown" in the SN dust models could be alleviated if macroscopic mixing is efficient enough to allow Si and C dust to form in the same regions. Indeed, some 3D hydrodynamical models (e.g., B15, N20; see Utrobin et al 2019) suggest that ∼30-70% of the Si can be mixed out of the central regions into the C shell (A. Wongwathanarat, private communication).…”

Matter Mixing in Aspherical Core-collapse Supernovae: Three-dimensional Simulations with Single-star and Binary Merger Progenitor Models for SN 1987A

“…1 Hitherto, there has been no consistent hydrodynamical model that explains the observed high velocity 56 Ni with a single progenitor star model that fulfills all the observational requirements for Sk −69 • 202. Recently, Utrobin et al (2019) revisited the modeling of light curves for larger variety of BSG models than that in Utrobin et al (2015); it was confirmed that there is no single star model that matches all observational features. Therefore, it is worth revisiting the matter mixing in SN 1987A with a binary merger model.…”