SN 2009ib: a Type II-P supernova with an unusually long plateau
Inserra, C.; Smartt, S. J.; Kankare, E.; Cappellaro, E.; Benetti, S.; Stritzinger, M. D.; Fraser, M.; Pignata, G.; Bufano, F.; Zampieri, L.; Elias-Rosa, N.; Haislip, J. B.; Reichart, D.; Pumo, M. L.; Van Dyk, S. D.; Hamuy, M.; Takáts, K.; Paillas, E.; Ergon, M.; LaCluyze, A. P.; Moore, J. P.
Chile, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, United States
Abstract
We present optical and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2009ib, a Type II-P supernova in NGC 1559. This object has moderate brightness, similar to those of the intermediate-luminosity SNe 2008in and 2009N. Its plateau phase is unusually long, lasting for about 130 d after explosion. The spectra are similar to those of the subluminous SN 2002gd, with moderate expansion velocities. We estimate the 56Ni mass produced as 0.046 ± 0.015 M⊙. We determine the distance to SN 2009ib using both the expanding photosphere method (EPM) and the standard candle method. We also apply EPM to SN 1986L, a Type II-P SN that exploded in the same galaxy. Combining the results of different methods, we conclude the distance to NGC 1559 as D = 19.8 ± 3.0 Mpc. We examine archival, pre-explosion images of the field taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, and find a faint source at the position of the SN, which has a yellow colour [(V - I)0 = 0.85 mag]. Assuming it is a single star, we estimate its initial mass as MZAMS = 20 M⊙. We also examine the possibility, that instead of the yellow source the progenitor of SN 2009ib is a red supergiant star too faint to be detected. In this case, we estimate the upper limit for the initial zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) mass of the progenitor to be ∼14-17 M⊙. In addition, we infer the physical properties of the progenitor at the explosion via hydrodynamical modelling of the observables, and estimate the total energy as ∼0.55 × 1051 erg, the pre-explosion radius as ∼400 R⊙, and the ejected envelope mass as ∼15 M⊙, which implies that the mass of the progenitor before explosion was ∼16.5-17 M⊙.