Pair creation supernovae at low and high redshift

Abstract

Pair creation supernovae (PCSN) are thought to be produced from very massive low metallicity stars. The spectacularly bright SN 2006gy does show signatures expected from PCSNe. Here, we investigate the metallicity threshold below which PCSN can form and estimate their occurrence rate. We perform stellar evolution calculations for stars of 150$\mso$ and 250$\mso$ of low metallicity (Z${}_{\odot }$/5 and Z${}_{\odot }$/20), and analyze their mass loss rates. We find that the bifurcation between quasi-chemically homogeneous evolution for fast rotation and conventional evolution for slower rotation, which has been found earlier for massive low metallicity stars, persists in the mass range considered here. Consequently, there are two separate PCSN progenitor types: (I) Fast rotators produce PCSNe from very massive Wolf-Rayet stars, and (II) Slower rotators that generate PCSNe in hydrogen-rich massive yellow hypergiants. We find that hydrogen-rich PCSNe could occur at metallicities as high as Z${}_{\odot }$/3, which -- assuming standard IMFs are still valid to estimate their birth rates -- results in a rate of about one PCSN per 1000 supernovae in the local universe, and one PCSN per 100 supernovae at a redshift of $z=5$. PCSNe from WC-type Wolf-Rayet stars are restricted to much lower metallicity.

submitted to A&A

References in corpus (4)

• A giant outburst two years before the core-collapse of a massive star
• The empirical metallicity dependence of the mass-loss rate of O- and early B-type stars
• SN 2006gy: An extremely luminous supernova in the galaxy NGC 1260
• A critical test of empirical mass loss formulae applied to individual giants and supergiants

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium. I. Type Ibn (SN 2006jc-like) events
• Uncovering the Chemical Signature of the First Stars in the Universe
• Supernova SN2006gy as a first ever Quark Nova?
• The most massive core collapse supernova progenitors
• Core-collapse supernovae in low-metallicity environments and future all-sky transient surveys
• Massive stars in their death-throes
• Around the Pair Instability Valley - Massive SN Progenitors