Radiative Acceleration of Dense Circumstellar Material in Interacting Supernovae

Abstract

Early-time light curves/spectra of some hydrogen-rich supernovae (SNe) provide solid evidence of the existence of confined, dense circumstellar matter (CSM) surrounding dying massive stars. We numerically and analytically study the radiative acceleration of CSM in such systems, where the radiation is mainly powered by the interaction between the SN ejecta and the CSM. We find that the acceleration of the unshocked dense CSM ahead of the shock is larger for massive and compact CSM, with velocities reaching up to ∼103 km s−1 for a CSM of order 0.1 M ⊙ confined within ∼1015 cm. We show that the dependence of the acceleration on the CSM density helps us explain the diversity of the CSM velocity inferred from the early spectra of some Type II SNe. For explosions in even denser CSM, radiative acceleration can affect the dissipation of strong collisionless shocks formed after the shock breakout, which would affect early nonthermal emission expected from particle acceleration.