Theoretical light curves of Type II-P supernovae and applications to cosmology

Abstract

Based on an extensive grid of stellar models between 13 and 25 M ⊙ and a wide range of metallicities, we have studied the light curves of core collapse supernovae, their application to cosmology and their evolutionary effects with redshift. The direct link between the hydrodynamics and radiation transport allows us to calculate monochromatic light curves. With decreasing metallicity, Z, and increasing mass, progenitors tend to explode as compact blue supergiants (BSG) and produce subluminous supernovae that are approximately 1.5 mag dimmer than normal Type II supernovae (SNe II) with red supergiant (RSG) progenitors. Progenitors with small masses tend to explode as RSGs even at low Z. The consequence for testing the chemical evolution is obvious, namely a strong bias when using the statistics of core collapse supernovae to determine the history of star formation. Our study is limited in scope with respect to the explosion energies and the production of radioactive Ni. Within the class of extreme SNe II-P supernovae, the light curves are rather insensitive with respect to the progenitor mass and explosion energy compared with analytic models based on parametrized stellar structures. We expect a wider range of brightness due to variations in 56Ni because radioactive energy is a significant source of luminosity. However, the overall insensitivity of light curves may allow their use as quasi-standard candles for distance determination.