TY - JOUR
T1 - SN 2023ixf in Messier 101
T2 - A Variable Red Supergiant as the Progenitor Candidate to a Type II Supernova
AU - Kilpatrick, Charles D.
AU - Foley, Ryan J.
AU - Jacobson-Galán, Wynn V.
AU - Piro, Anthony L.
AU - Smartt, Stephen J.
AU - Drout, Maria R.
AU - Gagliano, Alexander
AU - Gall, Christa
AU - Hjorth, Jens
AU - Jones, David O.
AU - Mandel, Kaisey S.
AU - Margutti, Raffaella
AU - Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico
AU - Ransome, Conor L.
AU - Villar, V. Ashley
AU - Coulter, David A.
AU - Gao, Hua
AU - Matthews, David Jacob
AU - Taggart, Kirsty
AU - Zenati, Yossef
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/7/1
Y1 - 2023/7/1
N2 - We present preexplosion optical and infrared (IR) imaging at the site of the type II supernova (SN II) 2023ixf in Messier 101 at 6.9 Mpc. We astrometrically registered a ground-based image of SN 2023ixf to archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer), and ground-based near-IR images. A single point source is detected at a position consistent with the SN at wavelengths ranging from HST R band to Spitzer 4.5 μm. Fitting with blackbody and red supergiant (RSG) spectral energy distributions (SEDs), we find that the source is anomalously cool with a significant mid-IR excess. We interpret this SED as reprocessed emission in a 8600 R ⊙ circumstellar shell of dusty material with a mass ∼5 × 10−5 M ⊙ surrounding a log ( L / L ⊙ ) = 4.74 ± 0.07 and T eff = 3920 − 160 + 200 K RSG. This luminosity is consistent with RSG models of initial mass 11 M ⊙, depending on assumptions of rotation and overshooting. In addition, the counterpart was significantly variable in preexplosion Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 μm imaging, exhibiting ∼70% variability in both bands correlated across 9 yr and 29 epochs of imaging. The variations appear to have a timescale of 2.8 yr, which is consistent with κ-mechanism pulsations observed in RSGs, albeit with a much larger amplitude than RSGs such as α Orionis (Betelgeuse).
AB - We present preexplosion optical and infrared (IR) imaging at the site of the type II supernova (SN II) 2023ixf in Messier 101 at 6.9 Mpc. We astrometrically registered a ground-based image of SN 2023ixf to archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer), and ground-based near-IR images. A single point source is detected at a position consistent with the SN at wavelengths ranging from HST R band to Spitzer 4.5 μm. Fitting with blackbody and red supergiant (RSG) spectral energy distributions (SEDs), we find that the source is anomalously cool with a significant mid-IR excess. We interpret this SED as reprocessed emission in a 8600 R ⊙ circumstellar shell of dusty material with a mass ∼5 × 10−5 M ⊙ surrounding a log ( L / L ⊙ ) = 4.74 ± 0.07 and T eff = 3920 − 160 + 200 K RSG. This luminosity is consistent with RSG models of initial mass 11 M ⊙, depending on assumptions of rotation and overshooting. In addition, the counterpart was significantly variable in preexplosion Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 μm imaging, exhibiting ∼70% variability in both bands correlated across 9 yr and 29 epochs of imaging. The variations appear to have a timescale of 2.8 yr, which is consistent with κ-mechanism pulsations observed in RSGs, albeit with a much larger amplitude than RSGs such as α Orionis (Betelgeuse).
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85166265211
U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/ace4ca
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/ace4ca
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AN - SCOPUS:85166265211
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 952
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L23
ER -