Precursors of Supernovae from Mass Eruption: Prospects for Early Warning of Nearby Core-collapse Supernovae

Understand

Recent observations of a large fraction of Type II supernovae show traces of dense circumstellar medium (CSM) very close to the progenitor star.

• If this CSM is created by eruptive mass loss several months before core-collapse, the eruption itself may be visible as a precursor, helpful as an early warning of a near-future supernova.
• Using radiation hydrodynamical simulations based on the open-source code CHIPS, we theoretically model the emission from mass eruption of a red supergiant star.
• We find that for a modest mass eruption the luminosity is typically on the order of $10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$, can last as long as hundreds of days until the star explodes, and is mainly bright in the infrared (from -9 to -11 mag around peak).