Type II supernovae Early Light Curves

Observations of type II supernova early light, from breakout until recombination, can be used to constrain the explosion energy and progenitor properties. Currently available for this purpose are purely analytic models, which are accurate only to within an order of magnitude, and detailed numerical simulations, which are more accurate but are applied to any event separately. In this paper we derive an analytic model that is calibrated by numerical simulations. This model is much more accurate than previous analytic models, yet it is as simple to use. To derive the model we analyze simulated light curves from numerical explosion of $124$ red supergiant progenitors, calculated using the stellar evolution code MESA. We find that although the structure of the progenitors we consider varies, the resulting light curves can be described rather well based only on the explosion energy, ejecta mass and progenitor radius. Our calibrated analytic model, which is based on these three parameters, reproduces the bolometric luminosity within $25\%-35\%$ accuracy and the observed temperature within $15\%$ accuracy (compared to previous analytic models which are indeed found to be accurate only to within an order of magnitude). We also consider deviations of the early time spectrum from blackbody, and find that the Rayleigh-Jeans regime is slightly shallower (roughly $L_\nu \propto \nu^{1.4}$). This modified spectrum affects the optical/near-UV light curve mostly during the first day when the typical observed temperature is $\gg 10^4 ~^\circ$K. We use our results to study the optical and near-UV early light curves from first light until recombination and briefly discuss what can be learned from current and future observations. Light curves generated using our calibrated model can be downloaded at http://www.astro.tau.ac.il/~tomersh/.