Name: Joanna Fabbri

Institution: University College London (UCL)

e-mail: jfabbri(no-spam)star.ucl.ac.uk

Partner Contry: UK

Science Meeting: Yes

User Meeting: No

NGO Staff Meeting: No

Presentation: Yes

Format: Oral

Title: Mid-IR studies of dust production by core-collapse supernovae

Co-author: The SEEDS collaboration: M. J. Barlow(1), G. C. Clayton(2), B. Ercolano(3), T. M. Gledhill(4), K. D. Gordon(5), M. Meixner(6), M. J. Meyer(6), N. Panagia(6), A. K. Speck(7), B. E. K. Sugerman(8), A. G. G. M. Tielens(9), D. L. Welch(10), R. Wesson(1), M. J. Wolff(11), A. A. Zijlstra(12)

Co-authors' Institutions: UCL (1)UCL, (2)Louisiana State Uni., (3)Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, (4)Uni. of Hertfordshire, (5)Steward Observatory, Uni. of Arizona, (6)STScI, (7)Uni. of Missouri, (8)Goucher College, (9)Uni. of Groningen, (10)McMaster Uni., (11)Space Science Institute, Uni. of Colorado, (12)UMIST, Manchester

Abstract:

Our collaboration has been conducting a sensitive mid-IR Survey for the Evolution of Emission from Dust in Supernovae (SEEDS). Using primarily Gemini and Spitzer, we have been carefully revisiting the observational case for dust formation by core-collapse SNe in order to address whether they provide an important contribution to the dust budget of galaxies, as predicted by nucleation theory and inferred from observations of extremely dusty, IR-luminous galaxies at high redshifts. Recently we reported only the second unambiguous detection of dust formation in the ejecta of a Type II SN, for SN 2003gd in M74, using Gemini GMOS-N and Michelle observations, together with Spitzer data. Using clumped-dust Monte Carlo radiative transfer modelling, we estimated a dust mass of up to 0.02 solar masses by day 678, implying that dust formation in core-collapse SNe can be highly efficient (Sugerman et al. 2006). In 2005, we reported that Spitzer and Gemini detections of SN 2002hh in NGC 6946 were consistent with emission from nearby pre-existing dust, possibly from a previously ejected circumstellar shell (Barlow et al. 2005). Subsequent observations confirm that its IR emission is not fading as expected for newly-formed, ejecta-condensed dust. We report the discovery from HST imaging that this SN's optical emission is in fact coming from a just-resolved light echo, providing a likely explanation for its extended IIP light curve. Further results from our continued monitoring of these and other massive-star SNe, including SN 2005cs, SN 2004dj, SN 2004et and SN 1999bw, will be presented.

Comments:

My registration for the Gemini Science meeting is dependent upon my application for funding being successful. As stated in my funding application, I am currently completing my thesis and my stipend from PPARC has finished. Other funding sources available to me are limited.