A binary scenario for the pre-explosion outburst of the supernova 2010mc

Abstract

I raise the possibility that the pre-explosion outburst (PEO) of the type IIn supernova 2010mc (PTF 10tel) was energized by mass accretion onto an O main-sequence stellar companion. According to this suggestion the SN progenitor suffered a rapid expansion within months before explosion. The expansion was driven by leakage of energy from the core where vigorous oxygen nuclear burning takes place within a year prior to explosion. This expansion triggered mass transfer onto the secondary star. Most of the extra energy of the outburst comes from the accretion of ~0.1Mo onto the secondary star. As well, the gas outflowing at v~2000 km/s was launched from the accreting secondary star, most likely in a bipolar outflow. The binary model can account for the slower circumstellar medium that was ejected at earlier times, and explain the red-shifted peak of the Halpha emission at 5.8 days past explosion. I compare some properties of the PEO of SN 2010mc to those of other stellar eruptions, such as the stellar merger event V838 Monocerotis and the nineteenth century Great Eruption of the massive stellar binary system Eta Carinae. I speculate that all Type IIn supernovae owe their dense circumstellar gas to binary interaction.