The demographics of core-collapse supernovae. The role of binary evolution and interaction with the circumstellar medium

The observational properties of core-collapse supernovae are shaped by the envelopes of their progenitors. In massive binary systems, mass-transfer drastically alters the pre-supernova structures compared to single stars, which leads to a diversity in supernova explosions. We computed the distribution of core-collapse supernova properties based on comprehensive detailed grids of single and binary stellar evolution models. We conducted a grid-based population synthesis to produce a synthetic population of core-collapse supernovae and compared it to observed supernova samples. To do this, we applied various explodability and merger criteria to our models. In line with earlier results, we identified interacting supernova progenitors as those stars that undergo core collapse during or shortly after a Roche-lobe overflow phase. With an interacting binary fraction of 68%, our models predict that two-thirds of all core-collapse supernovae are IIP/L and one-third are Ibc. This agrees with recent volume-limited supernova surveys. We find that 76% of the Ibc supernova progenitors took part in a previous binary mass transfer (mostly as a mass donor), but 63% of the Type,IIP/L supernova progenitors did this as well (mostly as mass gainers). This yields a much broader envelope mass distribution than expected from single stars. Mass-transfer-induced interacting supernovae make up sim5% of all core-collapse supernovae, which is close to the observed fractions of IIn and Ibn supernovae. When a disk or toroidal geometry of the circumstellar medium is assumed for IIn supernovae, our models predict a bimodal distribution of the radiated energies that is similar to the distribution deduced from observations. While we found the effect of binary evolution on the relative number of Ibc and IIP/L supernovae to be moderate, it leads to lower average ejecta masses in Ibc and IIb supernovae and can lead to higher pre-supernova masses in Type IIP/L supernovae than in single stars. Binary models are also able to reproduce the number and properties of interacting supernovae.