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arXiv · 1507.06579

The disappearance of the progenitor of SN 2012aw in late-time imaging

M. Fraser
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Abstract

We present new late-time near-infrared imaging of the site of the nearby core-collapse supernova SN 2012aw, confirming the disappearance of the point source identified by Fraser et al. (2012) and Van Dyk et al. (2012) as a candidate progenitor in both J and Ks filters. We re-measure the progenitor photometry, and find that both the J and Ks magnitudes of the source are consistent with those quoted in the literature. We also recover a marginal detection of the progenitor in H-band, for which we measure H=19.67+/-0.40 mag. Comparing the luminosity of the progenitor to stellar evolutionary models, SN 2012aw appears to have resulted from the explosion of a 12.5+/-1.5 Msun red supergiant.

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M. Fraser. 2015-07-23. The disappearance of the progenitor of SN 2012aw in late-time imaging. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl%2Fslv168

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