Interacting supernovae from wide mass-transferring binaries

Andrea Ercolino

Published 2024-10-22Version 1

The light curves and spectra of many Type I and Type II supernovae (SNe) are heavily influenced by the interaction of the SN ejecta with circumstellar material (CSM) surrounding the progenitor star. The observed diversity shows that many progenitors have undergone some level of stripping and polluted their CSM shortly before the explosion. The presence of a binary companion and the mass transfer that can ensue offers a mechanism that can give rise to this diversity. We present a set of detailed massive evolutionary models in which the donor star, a Red Supergiant (RSG) is in a wide orbit around a main-sequence companion, and undergoes stable or unstable mass transfer in the later stages of evolution, up to the moment of core collapse. We also discuss some significant physics of these systems that may impact our results, from the presence of pulsations and extended atmospheres in RSGs, to the initial eccentricity of the orbit. The resulting SN types range from Type IIP to H-deficient IIb and H-free Ib. In models undergoing stable mass transfer, the material lost during this process is expected to form a dense CSM surrounding the system by the time of core collapse and give rise to significant interaction effects in the SN light curve and spectra. In the systems with unstable mass transfer mass transfer, the SN may occur during common-envelope evolution. In this case, the progenitor may show significant variability in the last few thousand years before core collapse, and the following SN will likely exhibit strong interaction effects.