Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-07-05
ApJ Letters, Volume 731, Issue 1, article id. L4 (2011)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Accepted to ApJ Letters, v2 matches published version. Monte-Carlo simulations and more data than v1, conclusions strenghtened
Scientific paper
10.1088/2041-8205/731/1/L4
Metallicity is expected to influence not only the lives of massive stars but also the outcome of their deaths as supernovae (SNe) and as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, there are surprisingly few direct measurements of the local metallicities of different flavors of core-collapse SNe. Here we present the largest existing set of host-galaxy spectra with H II region emission lines at the sites of 35 stripped-envelope core-collapse SNe. We derive local oxygen abundances in a robust manner in order to constrain the SN Ib/c progenitor population. We obtain spectra at the SN sites, include SNe from targeted and untargeted surveys, and perform the abundance determinatinos using three different oxygen-abundance calibrations. The sites of SNe Ic (the demise of the most heavily stripped stars having lost both the H and He layers) are systematically more metal rich than those of SNe Ib (arising from stars that retained their He layer) in all calibrations. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test yields the very low probability of 1% that SN Ib and SN Ic environment abundances, which are different on average by ~0.2 dex (in the Pettini & Pagel scale), are drawn from the same parent population. Broad-lined SNe Ic (without GRBs) occur at metallicities between those of SNe Ib and SNe Ic. Lastly, we find that the host-galaxy central oxygen abundance is not a good indicator of the local SN metallicity; hence, large-scale SN surveys need to obtain local abundance measurements in order to quantify the impact of metallicity on stellar death.
Bloom Josh S.
Filippenko Alexei V.
Kewley Lisa
Modjaz Maryam
Perley Daniel
No associations
LandOfFree
Progenitor Diagnostics for Stripped Core-Collapse Supernovae: Measured Metallicities at Explosion Sites does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Progenitor Diagnostics for Stripped Core-Collapse Supernovae: Measured Metallicities at Explosion Sites, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Progenitor Diagnostics for Stripped Core-Collapse Supernovae: Measured Metallicities at Explosion Sites will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-594943