Low-frequency radio observations of SN 2011dh and the evolution of its post-shock plasma properties

Abstract

We present late time, low-frequency observations of SN 2011dh made using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). Our observations at 325, 610 and 1280 MHz conducted between 93 and 421 d after the explosion supplement the millimeter and centimetre wave observations conducted between 4 and 15 d after explosion using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) and extensive radio observations (1.0-36.5 GHz) conducted between 16 and 93 d after explosion using Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA). We fit a synchrotron self absorption model (SSA) to the 610 and 1280 MHz radio light curves. We use it to determine the radius (Rp) and magnetic field (Bp) at 173 and 323 d after the explosion. A comparison of the peak radio luminosity Lop with the product of the peak frequency νp and time to peak tp shows that the supernova evolves between the epochs of CARMA, JVLA and GMRT observations. It shows a general slowing down of the expansion speed of the radio emitting region on a time-scale of several hundred days during which the shock is propagating through a circumstellar medium set up by a wind with a constant mass-loss parameter, M/vW. We derive the mass-loss parameter (A*) based on 610 and 1280 MHz radio light curves, which are found to be consistent with each other within error limits.