(Proposal ID) S11B-078

(PI) Kuncarayakti, Hanindyo

(Proposal Title)
GMOS integral field spectroscopy of nearby Ib/c supernova sites

(Abstract)
We propose GMOS-N integral field spectroscopy of supernova-hosting star 
clusters and their immediate environments in nearby galaxies to derive 
type-Ib/c SN progenitor mass and metallicity. This would be the first attempt 
to characterize SNe Ib/c progenitors, which have eluded direct detection so 
far. This project is very important in the context of SN studies since SNe 
Ib/c are associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts and they mark the end of the lives 
of the most massive stars. By comparing observed spectrum of the host star 
cluster to simple stellar population models, we aim to derive cluster's 
metallicity and age, which in turn give metallicity and initial mass of the 
once coeval SN progenitor star. From emission lines in the spectrum of the 
young cluster, metallicity could be derived using line-ratio methods and 
Halpha equivalent width will be used to estimate cluster age. In terms of the 
physical size of studied area of SN environment, our method is in-between pre-
explosion direct progenitor imaging and SN host galaxy studies, but provides 
accuracy in progenitor mass estimate comparable to direct progenitor imaging. 
Our method even has an advantage over direct progenitor imaging, providing 
local metallicity estimate which is an important parameter for SNe Ib/c.