Rapid decline in the lightcurves of luminous supernovae by jet-driven bipolar explosions

Abstract

ABSTRACT We calculate the lightcurves of jet-driven bipolar core collapse supernova (CCSN) explosions into a bipolar circumstellar matter (CSM) and show that an equatorial observer finds the lightcurves to possess a rapid, and even an abrupt drop. The scenario that might lead to such an explosive morphology is a common envelope evolution (CEE), where shortly before the CCSN explosion the red-supergiant progenitor interacts with a more compact companion that spirals-in and spins-up the core. The companion can be a main sequence star, a neutron star, or a black hole. The binary interaction ejects a shell through an intensive wind and the CEE ejects a denser gas in the equatorial plane. We assume that the companion accretes mass and launches jets. We conduct three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamical simulations where we launch weak jets, the shaping jets, into the dense shell and show that the interaction forms a bipolar CSM. As a result of the rapid pre-collapse core rotation jets drive the CCSN explosion. We simulate the interaction of the jets with the bipolar CSM and use a simple scheme to calculate the lightcurves. We show that the abrupt drop in the lightcurve of an observer not too close to the polar directions can account for the lightcurve of the hydrogen poor luminous supernova (LSN) SN 2018don.