From mass-loss histories to lightcurves: a generalised framework for interaction-powered transients
astro-ph.HE
Submitted: 2026-05-19
Updated: 2026-09-11
Comments: Accepted in MNRAS. 24 pages, 11 figures. Code available at https://github.com/nikhil-sarin/redback-csm
Code: https://github.com/nikhil-sarin/redback-csm
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: We introduce a fast (about 1 -- 50 ms) and generalised public framework for modelling interaction-powered transients.
Terminology
Abstract
We introduce a fast (about 1 -- 50 ms) and generalised public framework for modelling interaction-powered transients. The framework solves the thin-shell equations of motion for ejecta colliding with circumstellar material (CSM), and supports arbitrary CSM density and velocity profiles, including steady winds, eruptions, and complex time-variable mass-loss histories. For optical/UV lightcurves, we implement two luminosity treatments: a one-zone mode based on the thin-shell shock power, and a finite-shell transport mode that evolves trapped radiation, photon diffusion, shock emergence, and post-emergence cooling for finite, static CSM shells. In a benchmark comparison, the transport calculation and an optional time-dependent shock-efficiency prescription reproduce the main qualitative and quantitative features of a one-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamical simulation. We use the same shock solution to post-process radio synchrotron and thermal bremsstrahlung X-ray predictions, enabling self-consistent multi-wavelength diagnostics. We show that the assumed CSM velocity structure can significantly affect inferred parameters even when the density profile at explosion is identical, and that aspherical CSM can mimic multiple spherical shells in bolometric lightcurves. We demonstrate the framework through recovery of a synthetic time-variable mass-loss history and applications to six transients: the Type IIn SN 2010jl, the rapidly evolving stripped-envelope SN 2023xgo, the Type Ia-CSM SN 2020aeuh, the hydrogen-poor superluminous SN 2015bn, the eruptive LBV-like transient SN 2009ip, and the long-duration interacting event iPTF14hls. The inferred CSM structures span steady or enhanced winds, thermonuclear interaction, eruptive density enhancements, and highly structured pre-supernova mass loss, illustrating the framework's utility for inference on upcoming samples of interacting transients.
Sources
- Multi-wavelength Signatures of Supernova Shock Breakout from Red Supergiants in Two Dimensions
- Lightcurve Modelling of 2,205 ZTF DR2 Type Ia Supernovae: Implications for SN Ia Physics and Cosmology
- A thermonuclear supernova interacting with hydrogen- and helium-deficient circumstellar material. SN 2020aeuh as a SN Ia-CSM-C/O?
- Einstein Probe - a small mission to monitor and explore the dynamic X-ray Universe
- TransFit-CSM: A Fast, Physically Consistent Framework for Interaction-Powered Transients
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