Light curves and Hα luminosities as indicators of Ni mass in type IIP supernovae

¹ SISSA / ISAS, via Beirut 4, 34014 Trieste, Italy
² Institute of Astronomy RAS, Pyatnitskaya 48, 109017 Moscow, Russia
³ Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B.Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy

Corresponding author: A. Elmhamdi, elmhamdi@sissa.it

Received: 12 February 2003
Accepted: 4 April 2003

Abstract

The possibility is investigated that the Hα luminosity at the nebular epoch may be an additional indicator of ⁵⁶Ni mass in type II supernovae with plateau (SNe IIP), on the basis of available photometry and spectra. We first derive the ⁵⁶Ni mass from the M_V magnitude on the radioactive tail using a standard approach. A confirmation of the correlation between ⁵⁶Ni mass and plateau M_V magnitude found recently by Hamuy (2003) is evident. There is strong evidence of a correlation between steepness of the V light curve slope at the inflection time and the ⁵⁶Ni mass. If confirmed, this relation may provide distance and extinction independent estimates of the amount of ⁵⁶Ni in SNe IIP. We then apply upgraded radioactive models of Hα luminosity at the nebular epoch and claim that it may be a good indicator of ⁵⁶Ni, if mass, energy and mixing properties vary moderately (within factor ~1.4) among SNe IIP. This method of the ⁵⁶Ni mass determination from Hα luminosities yields results which are consistent with the photometric mass of ⁵⁶Ni mass to within 20%. This result also implies that the parameters of SNe IIP events (mass, energy and mixing properties) are rather similar among the majority of SNe IIP, except for rare cases of SN II intermediate between IIP and IIL (linear), of which SN 1970G is an example.