The locations of SNe Ib/c and their comparison to those of WR stars and GRBs

Abstract

The locations of long GRBs and stripped supernovae are compared to those of their favored progenitors, WR stars, and their sub-classes. Compared to Leloudas et al. (2010), we have doubled the number of galaxies with suitable WR data. In the combined sample, WC stars are found, on average, in brighter locations than WN stars. The WN distribution is fully consistent with the one of SNe Ib, while it is inconsistent with those of SNe II, Ic and GRBs. The WC distribution is both consistent with SNe Ib and Ic. It is inconsistent with SNe II, and marginally consistent with GRBs. Furthermore, we present a spectroscopic study of the locations of SNe Ib/c. The average metallicity in the environments of SNe Ic is found to be a little higher than for SNe Ib, but the difference is small and not significant within our sample. Under the assumption that the SN regions were formed in an instantaneous burst of star formation, we find that a fraction of them appear older than what is allowed in order to host SNe Ib/c from single massive stars. Within this framework, these SNe must come from lower mass binaries. © 2012 International Astronomical Union.