A spectroscopically normal type Ic supernova from a very massive progenitor

Abstract

We present observations of the Type Ic supernova (SN Ic) 2011bm spanning a period of about one year. The data establish that SN 2011bm is a spectroscopically normal SN Ic with moderately low ejecta velocities and with a very slow spectroscopic and photometric evolution (more than twice as slow as SN 1998bw). The Pan-STARRS1 retrospective detection shows that the rise time from explosion to peak was 40days in the R band. Through an analysis of the light curve and the spectral sequence, we estimate a kinetic energy of 7-17 foe and a total ejected mass of 7-17 M ⊙, 5-10 M ⊙ of which is oxygen and 0.6-0.7 M ⊙ is 56Ni. The physical parameters obtained for SN 2011bm suggest that its progenitor was a massive star of initial mass 30-50 M ⊙. The profile of the forbidden oxygen lines in the nebular spectra shows no evidence of a bi-polar geometry in the ejected material. © 2012 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.