An Analytical Density Profile of Dense Circumstellar Medium in Type II Supernovae

Abstract

Observations of Type II supernovae imply that a large fraction of its progenitors experience enhanced mass loss years to decades before core collapse, creating a dense circumstellar medium (CSM). Assuming that the CSM is produced by a single mass eruption event, we analytically model the density profile of the resulting CSM. We find that a double power-law profile, where the inner (outer) power-law index has a characteristic value of -1.5 (-10 to -12), gives a good fit to the CSM profile obtained using radiation hydrodynamical simulations. With our profile the CSM is well described by just two parameters, the transition radius $r_{\ast }$ and density at $r=r_{\ast }$ (alternatively $r_{\ast }$ and the total CSM mass). We encourage future studies to include this profile, if possible, when modelling emission from interaction-powered transients.

8 pages, 3 figures. Extended discussion, conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication in PASJ

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Synthetic red supergiant explosion model grid for systematic characterization of Type II supernovae
• Eruption of the Envelope of Massive Stars by Energy Injection with Finite Duration