Close Binary Stellar Evolution and Supernovae

Abstract

Types II, IIb, Ib, and Ic supernovae are widely considered as the end of the evolution of massive stars. These are thought as due to a unique mechanism: core collapse and subsequent explosion. However, from a photometrical and spectroscopical point of view, these events are very different. Type II events are plenty of hydrogen, IIb have little, whereas Ib do not show it but are dominated by helium. Even more extreme is the case of Ic events that do not show any hydrogen or helium. Today it is considered that most of massive stars belong to binary systems close enough to make the components of the pair to be forced to undergo mass exchange during their lives. Evidently, the evolution of massive binaries is fundamental for interpreting available observations quantitatively. Here we review the theory of the evolution of massive binaries playing special attention to its physical basis and main differences from the far easier problem of single stellar evolution. Then, we discuss its application to the case of some recent supernovae (SNe) thought to be due to binary progenitors: SN 1993J and SN 2011dh. With the presently available models, it is possible to account for the variety of types II, IIb, and even Ib supernovae as due to mass transfer and/or loss from the systems. However, it seems difficult to explain the processes that lead type Ic progenitors to lose all their helium prior to explosion.