Signatures of anti-social mass-loss in the ordinary Type II SN 2024bch -- A non-interacting supernova with early high-ionisation features

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the spectro-photometric properties of the Type II supernova 2024bch, exploded in NGC 3206 at a distance of $19.9\,\rm{Mpc}$. Its early spectra are characterised by narrow high-ionisation emission lines, often interpreted as signatures of ongoing interaction between rapidly expanding ejecta and a confined dense circumstellar medium. However, we provide a model for the bolometric light curve of the transient that does not require sources of energy different than radioactive decays and H recombination. Our model can reproduce the bolometric light curve of SN 2024bch adopting an ejected mass of $M_{bulk}\simeq5\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$ surrounded by an extended envelope of only $0.2\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$ with an outer radius $R_{env}=7.0\times10^{13}\,\rm{cm}$. An accurate modelling focused on the radioactive part of the light curve, which accounts for incomplete $\gamma-$ray trapping, gives a $^{56}\rm{Ni}$ mass of $0.048\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$. We propose narrow lines to be powered by Bowen fluorescence induced by scattering of He II Ly$\alpha$ photons, resulting in the emission of high-ionisation resonance lines. Simple light travel time calculations based on the maximum phase of the narrow emission lines place the inner radius of the H-rich, un-shocked shell at a radius $\simeq4.4\times10^{15}\,\rm{cm}$, compatible with an absence of ejecta-CSM interaction during the first weeks of evolution. Possible signatures of interaction appear only $\sim69\,\rm{days}$ after explosion, although the resulting conversion of kinetic energy into radiation does not seem to contribute significantly to the total luminosity of the transient.