The Dusty Red Supergiant Progenitor and the Local Environment of the Type II SN 2023ixf in M101

Abstract

Abstract As one of the closest supernovae (SNe) in the last decade, SN 2023ixf is an unprecedented target to investigate the progenitor star that exploded. However, there is still significant uncertainty in the reported progenitor properties. In this work, we present a detailed study of SN 2023ixf’s progenitor with two independent analyses. We first modeled its spectral energy distribution (SED) based on Hubble Space Telescope optical, Spitzer mid-infrared (IR), and ground-based near-IR data. We find that stellar pulsation and circumstellar extinction have great impacts on SED fitting, and the result suggests a relatively massive red supergiant surrounded by C-rich dust with an initial mass of 16.2–17.4 M ⊙. The corresponding rate of mass loss occurring at least 3 yr before the SN explosion is about 2 × 10−4 M ⊙ yr−1. We also derived the star formation history of the SN environment based on resolved stellar populations, and the most recent star-forming epoch corresponds to a progenitor initial mass of 17–19 M ⊙, in agreement with that from our SED fitting. Therefore, we conclude that the progenitor of SN 2023ixf is close to the high-mass end for Type II SN progenitors.