Constraints on Type IIn Supernova Progenitor Outbursts from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search

Abstract

We searched through roughly 12 years of archival survey data acquired by the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) as part of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) in order to detect or place limits on possible progenitor outbursts of Type IIn supernovae (SNe~IIn). The KAIT database contains multiple pre-SN images for 5 SNe~IIn (plus one ambiguous case of a SN IIn/imposter) within 50 Mpc. No progenitor outbursts are found using the false discovery rate (FDR) statistical method in any of our targets. Instead, we derive limiting magnitudes (LMs) at the locations of the SNe. These limiting magnitudes (typically reaching $m_R\approx 19.5\mathrm{mag}$) are compared to outbursts of SN 2009ip and $\eta$ Car, plus additional simulated outbursts. We find that the data for SN 1999el and SN 2003dv are of sufficient quality to rule out events $\sim 40$ days before the main peak caused by initially faint SNe from blue supergiant (BSG) precursor stars, as in the cases of SN 2009ip and SN 2010mc. These SNe~IIn may thus have arisen from red supergiant progenitors, or they may have had a more rapid onset of circumstellar matter interaction. We also estimate the probability of detecting at least one outburst in our dataset to be $\gtrsim 60\%$ for each type of the example outbursts, so the lack of any detections suggests that such outbursts are either typically less luminous (intrinsically or owing to dust) than $\sim -13\mathrm{mag}$, or not very common among SNe~IIn within a few years prior to explosion.

22 pages, 11 figures, deluxetable.sty used

References in corpus (16)

• A giant outburst two years before the core-collapse of a massive star
• SN 2006jc: A Wolf-Rayet Star Exploding in a Dense He-Rich Circumstellar Medium
• SN 2006gy: An extremely luminous supernova in the galaxy NGC 1260
• SN 2006tf: Precursor Eruptions and the Optically Thick Regime of Extremely Luminous Type IIn Supernovae
• Rapid formation of large dust grains in the luminous supernova SN 2010jl
• A New Class of Luminous Transients and A First Census of Their Massive Stellar Progenitors
• Red supergiants as potential Type IIn supernova progenitors: Spatially resolved 4.6 micron CO emission around VY CMa and Betelgeuse
• Luminous Blue Variables are Antisocial: Their Isolation Implies that they are Kicked Mass Gainers in Binary Evolution
• Luminous Blue Variables as the progenitors of supernovae with quasi-periodic radio modulations
• The Progenitor Dependence of the Preexplosion Neutrino Emission in Core-Collapse Supernovae
• A Massive Progenitor of the Luminous Type IIn Supernova 2010jl
• A Blast Wave from the 1843 Eruption of Eta Carinae
• Multi-epoch spectropolarimetry of SN 2009ip: direct evidence for aspherical circumstellar material
• SN 2009kn - the twin of the Type IIn supernova 1994W
• The Structure of the Homunculus. II. Modeling the physical conditions in Eta Car's molecular shell
• Light Echoes from Eta Carinae's Great Eruption: Spectrophotometric Evolution and the Rapid Formation of Nitrogen-rich Molecules

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Unifying Type II Supernova Light Curves with Dense Circumstellar Material
• Revisiting the Lick Observatory Supernova Search Volume-Limited Sample: Updated Classifications and Revised Stripped-Envelope Supernova Fractions
• Supernovae 2016bdu and 2005gl, and their link with SN 2009ip-like transients: another piece of the puzzle
• The Berkeley sample of Type II supernovae: BVRI light curves and spectroscopy of 55 SNe II
• SN2013fs and SN2013fr: Exploring the circumstellar-material diversity in Type II supernovae
• Supernova Progenitors, Their Variability, and the Type IIP Supernova ASASSN-16fq in M66
• Circumstellar interaction in supernovae in dense environments - an observational perspective
• Optical and IR observations of SN 2013L, a Type IIn Supernova surrounded by asymmetric CSM
• Stochastic Core Spin-Up in Massive Stars -- Implications of 3D Simulations of Oxygen Shell Burning
• SN 2014ab: An Aspherical Type IIn Supernova with Low Polarization
• Luminous Blue Variables
• SN 2024hpj: A perspective on SN 2009ip-like events