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Interacting supernovae from photoionization-confined shells around red supergiant stars

Nature volume 512, pages 282–285 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Betelgeuse, a nearby red supergiant, is a fast-moving star with a powerful stellar wind that drives a bow shock into its surroundings1,2,3,4. This picture has been challenged by the discovery of a dense and almost static shell5 that is three times closer to the star than the bow shock and has been decelerated by some external force. The two physically distinct structures cannot both be formed by the hydrodynamic interaction of the wind with the interstellar medium. Here we report that a model in which Betelgeuse’s wind is photoionized by radiation from external sources can explain the static shell without requiring a new understanding of the bow shock. Pressure from the photoionized wind generates a standing shock in the neutral part of the wind6 and forms an almost static, photoionization-confined shell. Other red supergiants should have much more massive shells than Betelgeuse, because the photoionization-confined shell traps up to 35 per cent of all mass lost during the red supergiant phase, confining this gas close to the star until it explodes. After the supernova explosion, massive shells dramatically affect the supernova light curve, providing a natural explanation for the many supernovae that have signatures of circumstellar interaction.

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Figure 1: Circumstellar structures produced when a runaway red supergiant is exposed to an external ionizing radiation field.
Figure 2: Time evolution of the photoionization-confined shell around Betelgeuse for spherically symmetric simulations with three different ionizing fluxes.
Figure 3: Simulated observations of neutral hydrogen in the photoionization-confined shell around Betelgeuse.
Figure 4: Predicted luminosity evolution of supernovae interacting with massive photoionization-confined shells, compared with observations of two core-collapse supernovae.

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Acknowledgements

J.M. and S.M. are grateful to P. Kervella, T. Le Bertre and G. Perrin, the organisers of the Betelgeuse Workshop in Paris (November 2012), where the ideas for this work were first developed. J.M. acknowledges funding from a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft priority program 1573, ‘Physics of the Interstellar Medium’. S.M. acknowledges the receipt of research funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. T.J.M. is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Abroad (26·51). H.R.N. acknowledges funding from a NSF grant (AST-0807664). R.K. acknowledges support from STFC (ST/L000709/1). The authors acknowledge the John von Neumann Institute for Computing for a grant of computing time on the JUROPA supercomputer at Jülich Supercomputing Centre.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany,

    Jonathan Mackey, Norbert Langer, Dominique M.-A. Meyer & Takashi J. Moriya

  2. South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, 7935 Observatory, South Africa,

    Shazrene Mohamed

  3. Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Universitetskij Prospect 13, Moscow 119992, Russia,

    Vasilii V. Gvaramadze

  4. Isaac Newton Institute of Chile, Moscow Branch, Universitetskij Prospect 13, Moscow 119992, Russia,

    Vasilii V. Gvaramadze

  5. Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, Moscow 117997, Russia,

    Vasilii V. Gvaramadze

  6. Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK,

    Rubina Kotak

  7. Department of Physics and Astronomy, East Tennessee State University, Box 70652, Johnson City, Tennessee 37614, USA,

    Hilding R. Neilson

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  1. Jonathan Mackey
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Contributions

J.M. and S.M. had the original idea that Betelgeuse’s static shell could be confined by external radiation. J.M. derived the analytic equations for the shell, and ran and analysed the spherically symmetric computations. V.V.G., D.M.-A.M., N.L. and J.M. discussed the results in the context of recently discovered photoionized winds, which motivated many of the specific choices of parameters used. J.M., S.M., V.V.G., D.M.-A.M., H.R.N. and N.L. interpreted Betelgeuse’s shell in the context of our results. N.L. proposed that the shells could be relevant for interacting supernovae, and developed this idea with J.M., R.K. and T.J.M. Figures were prepared by J.M., S.M., T.J.M. and R.K. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan Mackey.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Dependence of the photoionization-confined shell radius on the properties of the stellar wind and external ionizing radiation.

The panels plot RIF as a function of mass-loss rate, (a), external ionizing photon flux, Fγ (b), and wind velocity, vn (c). Data points are from spherically symmetric radiation hydrodynamics simulations and black lines are from equation (1). In a, the fixed parameters are vn = 15 km s−1 and Fγ = 1010 cm−2 s−1; in b they are vn = 15 km s−1 and either (blue points) or (red points); and c they are and Fγ = 1010 cm−2 s−1.

Extended Data Figure 2 Dependence of the photoionization-confined shell mass on the properties of the stellar wind and external ionizing radiation.

The panels plot Mshell as a function of (a), Fγ (b) and vn (c). Data points are steady-state masses from spherically symmetric radiation hydrodynamics simulations and black lines are from equation (3). Again, in a the fixed parameters are vn = 15 km s−1 and Fγ = 1010 cm−2 s−1; in b they are vn = 15 km s−1 and either (blue points) or (red points); and in c they are and Fγ = 1010 cm−2 s−1.

Extended Data Figure 3 Growth of shell mass, Mshell, as a function of time for two different photoionization-confined shell simulations.

The shell accumulates mass linearly with time until it begins to saturate at about 1/3 to 1/2 of its final mass. The solid line shows in a and in b. a, Photoionization-confined shell appropriate for Betelgeuse, with , vn = 14 km s−1 and Fγ = 2 × 107 cm−2 s−1. b, More extreme model with , vn = 15 km s−1 and Fγ = 1013 cm−2 s−1.

Extended Data Figure 4 Structure of the circumstellar medium around Betelgeuse from a spherically symmetric radiation hydrodynamics simulation.

Hydrogen number density, gas velocity, temperature and wind fraction are plotted as functions of distance from the star after 0.01 Myr of evolution. The wind fraction equals 1 in the wind and equals 0 in the ISM. The photoionization-confined shell is still very thin and has low mass at this early time, and the fully ionized ISM interface at r = 0.2 pc shows that the expanding wind drives a forward shock and a reverse shock. Supplementary Information contains a video showing an animation of the time evolution.

Supplementary information

Evolution of the circumstellar structures around Betelgeuse from a spherically symmetric radiation-hydrodynamics simulation

Hydrogen number density, gas velocity, temperature, and wind fraction are plotted as a function of distance from the star. The wind fraction is = 1 in the wind and = 0 in the ISM. The photoionization-confined shell reaches its final position rapidly and accumulates mass, whereas the wind pushes the ISM to ever-larger radii over time. (MP4 303 kb)

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Mackey, J., Mohamed, S., Gvaramadze, V. et al. Interacting supernovae from photoionization-confined shells around red supergiant stars. Nature 512, 282–285 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13522

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