Ultraviolet to Infrared Spectroscopy of the Type Ibn SN 2023tsz Suggests a Lower-mass Progenitor

Abstract

Type Ibn supernovae are stripped-envelope explosions whose spectra indicate interaction with dense, helium-rich and hydrogen-poor circumstellar material (CSM), making them important probes of late-stage mass loss and progenitor stripping. We present extensive ultraviolet-to-near-infrared spectrophotometry of the Type Ibn SN 2023tsz, including two epochs of HST/STIS ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy and ground-based optical and near-infrared follow-up observations. The spectra are dominated by intermediate-width emission lines at all phases after maximum light, suggesting that much of the luminosity originates in a cold dense shell (CDS) formed by interaction between the ejecta and CSM. We compare the observations to one-dimensional non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium radiative-transfer models of a helium-star explosion with a mass of $4M_{\odot }$ at the onset of helium burning. The models reproduce the strong optical and near-infrared He I lines and require an added X-ray irradiation field to match the highly ionized UV features. The spectra are best reproduced by models with an X-ray irradiation power of $L_X\approx 10^8{L}_{\odot }$, with the preferred models favoring CDS radii of order $(1.5$--$2)\times 10^{15}$ cm, velocities of $\sim 5\times 10^7$ cm s${}^{-1}$, and interaction powers of a few times $10^{42}$ erg s${}^{-1}$. In the optical, the preferred models shift from higher interaction power and smaller radii at early times to lower power and larger radii at later times. These results add to the growing evidence that at least some SNe Ibn arise from lower-mass helium stars whose final evolution is shaped by binary interaction.

Submitted to ApJ