Blue supergiant progenitors from binary mergers for SN 1987A and other Type II-peculiar supernovae

Abstract

AbstractWe present results of a systematic and detailed stellar evolution study of binary mergers for blue supergiant (BSG) progenitors of Type II supernovae, particularly for SN 1987A. We are able to reproduce nearly all observational aspects of the progenitor of SN 1987A, Sk –69 °202, such as its position in the HR diagram, the enrichment of helium and nitrogen in the triple-ring nebula and its lifetime before its explosion. We build our evolutionary model based on the merger model of Podsiadlowski et al. (1992), Podsiadlowski et al. (2007) and empirically explore an initial parameter consisting of primary masses, secondary masses and different depths up to which the secondary penetrates the He core during the merger. The evolution of the post-merger star is continued until just before iron-core collapse. Of the 84 pre-supernova models (16 M⊙ − 23 M⊙) computed, the majority of the pre-supernova models are compact, hot BSGs with effective temperature >12 kK and 30 R⊙ − 70 R⊙ of which six match nearly all the observational properties of Sk –69 °202.