The disappearance of the helium-giant progenitor of the type Ib supernova iPTF13bvn and constraints on its companion

Abstract

We report and discuss post-explosion observations of supernova iPTF13bvn. We find that the brightness of the SN at +740 days is below the level of the pre-explosion source and thus confirm that the progenitor star has gone. We estimate that the late-time brightness is still dominated by the supernova, which constrains the magnitude and thus mass of a possible companion star to below approximately 10Msun. In turn this implies that the progenitor's initial mass is constrained to a narrow range of between 10 to 12Msun. The progenitor of iPTF13bvn would have been a helium giant rather than a Wolf-Rayet star. In addition, we suggest that sufficiently deep observations acquired in 2016 would now stand a chance to directly observe the companion star.