Type Ic supernovae: origin, diversity and impact

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Norbert Langer
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448644867

Supernova explosions mark the final stage of stellar evolution, in which large amounts of energy and freshly synthesized heavy elements are released into the interstellar medium of galaxies. Among the various classes of stellar explosions, the so called Type Ic supernovae are most puzzling, as they show neither hydrogen nor helium in their spectra. Moreover, Type Ic supernovae form several distinctly different groups, namely the ordinary Type Ics with average explosion energies, nickel and ejecta masses, the Type Ic hypernovae which are related to long-duration gamma-ray bursts, and the Type Ic superluminous supernovae, which emit up to 100-times more light than ordinary supernovae. In addition, the most massive stars are expected to form pair-instability supernovae, which would also appear as Ic supernovae when the progenitor lost most of its envelope to a stellar wind or dut to pulsations preceding its collapse. For none of these different types of Ic explosions is a clear progenitor evolution path established. Here, we want to build upon our preliminary efforts to explore progenitor evolution channels towards these events and on explorative light curve calculations for some of them, to construct the first selfconsistent and comprehensive set of Type Ic pre-supernova models evolved from main sequence stars, which is then used to compute the supernova properties. This approach does not only allow us to cover the complete initial parameter space of the considered evolutonary channels, and thus derive the complete range of the corresponding pre-supernova and supernova properties, but we will also be able to predict the rates and properties of the different kinds of Type Ic explosions at different metallicities and redshifts. We aim to benefit from recent breakthrough developments on the stellar evolution side through the MESA project, and on the supernova light curve modeling through the STELLA project. We will consider single star and binary evolution paths towards Type Ic supernovae of different types, and will be able to connect them with the booming number and quality of supernova observations, and with the recent and anticipated future gravitational wave transient detections. Our work will deliver the first selfconsistent Type Ic supernova models, including their nucleosynthesis products, and make testable predictions about their appearance and their remnants, and allow an assessment of their role for cosmic nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Russia
• Partner Organisation: Russian Foundation for Basic Research, until 3/2022
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Victor Utrobin, until 3/2022