The red supergiant and supernova rate problems: implications for core-collapse supernova physics

Abstract

Mapping supernovae to their progenitors is fundamental to understanding the collapse of massive stars. We investigate the red supergiant problem, which concerns why red supergiants with masses $\sim 16$-$30M_{\odot }$ have not been identified as progenitors of Type IIP supernovae, and the supernova rate problem, which concerns why the observed cosmic supernova rate is smaller than the observed cosmic star formation rate. We find key physics to solving these in the compactness parameter, which characterizes the density structure of the progenitor. If massive stars with compactness above ${\xi }_{2.5}\sim 0.2$ fail to produce canonical supernovae, (i) stars in the mass range $16$-$30M_{\odot }$ populate an island of stars that have high ${\xi }_{2.5}$ and do not produce canonical supernovae, and (ii) the fraction of such stars is consistent with the missing fraction of supernovae relative to star formation. We support this scenario with a series of two- and three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics core-collapse simulations. Using more than 300 progenitors covering initial masses $10.8$-$75M_{\odot }$ and three initial metallicities, we show that high compactness is conducive to failed explosions. We then argue that a critical compactness of $\sim 0.2$ as the divide between successful and failed explosions is consistent with state-of-the-art three-dimensional core-collapse simulations. Our study implies that numerical simulations of core collapse need not produce robust explosions in a significant fraction of compact massive star initial conditions.

5 pages, 4 figures, published in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Observational constraints on the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae : the case for missing high mass stars
• The Search for Failed Supernovae with The Large Binocular Telescope: First Candidates
• Constraints on Core Collapse from the Black Hole Mass Function
• A Global Model of The Light Curves and Expansion Velocities of Type II-Plateau Supernovae
• Spectrum of the Supernova Relic Neutrino Background and Metallicity Evolution of Galaxies
• Multi-dimensional Features of Neutrino Transfer in Core-Collapse Supernovae