High mass of the type IIP supernova 2004et inferred from hydrodynamic modeling

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
² Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, B. Cheremushkinskaya St. 25, 117218 Moscow, Russia e-mail: utrobin@itep.ru
³ Institute of Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyatnitskaya St. 48, 109017 Moscow, Russia

Received: 3 April 2009
Accepted: 7 July 2009

Abstract

Context. Previous studies of type IIP supernovae have inferred that progenitor masses recovered from hydrodynamic models are higher than 15 .

Aims. To verify the progenitor mass of this supernova category, we attempt a parameter determination of the well-observed luminous type IIP supernova 2004et.

Methods. We model the bolometric light curve and the photospheric velocities of SN 2004et by means of hydrodynamic simulations in an extended parameter space.

Results. From hydrodynamic simulations and observational data, we infer a presupernova radius of 1500 ± 140 , an ejecta mass of 24.5 ± 1 , an explosion energy of (2.3±0.3) 10⁵¹ erg, and a radioactive ⁵⁶Ni mass of 0.068 ± 0.009 . The estimated progenitor mass on the main sequence is in the range of 25-29 . In addition, we find clear signatures of the explosion asymmetry in the nebular spectra of SN 2004et.

Conclusions. The measured progenitor mass of SN 2004et is significantly higher than the progenitor mass suggested by the pre-explosion images. We speculate that the mass inferred from hydrodynamic modeling is overestimated and crucial missing factors are multi-dimensional effects.