1110.5618 (A. Corsi et al.)

Evidence for a compact Wolf-Rayet progenitor for the Type Ic supernova PTF 10vgv    [PDF]

A. Corsi, E. O. Ofek, A. Gal-Yam, D. A. Frail, D. Poznanski, P. A. Mazzali, S. R. Kulkarni, M. M. Kasliwal, I. Arcavi, S. Ben-Ami, S. B. Cenko, A. V. Filippenko, D. B. Fox, A. Horesh, J. L. Howell, I. K. W. Kleiser, E. Nakar, I. Rabinak, R. Sari, J. M. Silverman, D. Xu, J. S. Bloom, N. M. Law, P. Nugent, R. M. Quimby

We present the discovery of PTF 10vgv, a Type Ic supernova detected by the Palomar Transient Factory, using the Palomar 48-inch telescope (P48). R-band observations of the PTF 10vgv field with P48 probe the supernova emission from its very early phases (about two weeks before R-band maximum), and set limits on its flux in the week prior to the discovery. Our sensitive upper limits and early detections constrain the post-shock-breakout luminosity of this event. Via comparison to numerical (analytical) models, we derive an upper-limit of R \lesssim 4.5 Rsun (R \lesssim 1 Rsun) on the radius of the progenitor star, a direct indication in favor of a compact Wolf-Rayet star. Applying a similar analysis to the historical observations of SN 1994I, yields R \lesssim 1/4 Rsun for the progenitor radius of this supernova.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.5618