Supernova ejecta interacting with a circumstellar disk. I. two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations

Abstract

We perform a series of two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of the collision between supernova ejecta and circumstellar media (CSM). The hydrodynamic interaction of a fast flow and the surrounding media efficiently dissipates the kinetic energy of the fast flow and considered as a dominant energy source for a specific class of core-collapse supernovae. Despite some observational evidence for aspherical ejecta and/or CSM structure, multi-dimensional effects in the ejecta-CSM interaction are relatively unexplored. Our numerical simulations equipped with an adaptive mesh refinement technique successfully reproduce hydrodynamic instabilities developing around the ejecta-CSM interface. We also investigate effects of disk-like CSM on the dynamical evolution of supernova ejecta and bolometric light curves. We find that emission powered by ejecta-disk interaction exhibits significant viewing angle dependence. For a line of sight close to the symmetry axis, the observer directly sees the supernova ejecta, leading to a short brightening timescale. For an observer seeing the emission through the CSM disk, thermal photons diffuse throughout the CSM and thus the light curve is severely smeared out.