# Direct Analysis of Spectra of the Type Ic Supernova 1994I

## 1 Introduction

Supernova 1994I, in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51$``$NGC 5194), was a well observed supernova of Type Ic. By definition, the spectrum of a Type Ic lacks the strong hydrogen lines of a Type II, the strong He I lines of a Type Ib, and the deep red Si II absorption of a Type Ia (e.g., Filippenko (1997). A Type Ic (SN Ic) is thought to be the result of the core collapse of a massive star that either loses its helium layer before it explodes, or ejects some helium that remains insufficiently excited to produce conspicuous optical He I lines. In the specific case of SN 1994I, the identification of an absorption feature observed near 10,250 Å with the He I $`\lambda 10830`$ line (Filippenko et al. 1995) has been taken to indicate that helium was ejected.

Recently, interest in SNe Ic has been very high, because of the peculiar SNe Ic 1998bw and 1997ef. SN 1998bw probably was associated with a gamma–ray burst (Galama et al. 1998; Kulkarni et al. 1998; Pian 1999; but see Norris, Bonnell, & Watanabe 1998). It also was exceptionally bright at radio wavelengths and relativistic ejecta seem to be required (Kulkarni et al. 1998; Li & Chevalier 1999). On the basis of optical light–curve studies, the kinetic energy of its ejected matter has been inferred to be much higher than the canonical supernova energy of 10<sup>51</sup> ergs (Iwamoto et al. 1998a; Woosley, Eastman, & Schmidt 1998), unless the matter ejection was extremely asymmetric (Wang & Wheeler 1998). Spectroscopically, SN 1997ef resembled SN 1998bw, but Iwamoto et al. (1998b) were able to fit the SN 1997ef light curve with a normal kinetic energy. However, on the basis of synthetic–spectrum studies such as that which is presented in this paper for SN 1994I, we (Deaton et al. 1998; Branch 1999; Millard et al. in preparation) find that SN 1997ef, like SN 1998bw, was hyper–energetic. The light curve of SN 1997ef can also be fit with a high kinetic energy (K. Nomoto, private communication.)

According to light–curve studies of SN 1994I (Nomoto et al. 1994; Iwamoto et al. 1994; Young, Baron, & Branch 1995; Woosley, Langer, & Wheeler 1995), it was not a hyper–energetic event . Thus, in addition to being of interest in its own right as the best observed “ordinary” SN Ic, SN 1994I provides a valuable basis for comparison with the apparently hyper–energetic SNe 1997ef and 1998bw. It should be noted that the spectra of SNe 1998bw and 1997ef were definitely unusual; they differed significantly from those of normal SNe Ic such as SN 1994I, but a comparative study (Branch 1999) suggests that the main difference is that SNe 1997ef and 1998bw ejected more mass at high velocity.

In this paper we report the results of a study of photospheric–phase spectra of SN 1994I using the parameterized supernova spectrum–synthesis code SYNOW (Fisher et al. 1997, 1999). The observed spectra are discussed in Section 2 and our synthetic–spectrum procedure is described in Section 3. Our results are presented in Section 4 and discussed in Section 5. In a companion paper (Baron et al. 1999), detailed NLTE synthetic spectra of some hydrodynamical models are compared with SN 1994I spectra.

## 2 Observations

Figure 1 displays the spectra that we have studied with SYNOW. The spectra have been corrected for interstellar reddening using $`A_V=1.2`$ mag. It is clear that the reddening was substantial, but the amount is uncertain \[e.g., Richmond et al. (1996) estimated $`A_V=1.4\pm 0.5`$ mag\]. Throughout this paper, spectral epochs are in days with respect to the date of maximum brightness in the $`B`$ band, 1994 April 8 UT (Richmond et al. 1996). The six spectra of Figure 1 (a) were obtained at the Lick Observatory by Filippenko et al. (1995), who presented additional spectra that are not reproduced here; see their paper for details of the observations and reductions. Also in Figure 1 (a), a spectrum obtained by the Supernova INtensive Study (SINS) group with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at $`+11`$ days is combined with the Filippenko et al. (1995) optical spectrum for $`+10`$ days. The seven spectra of Figure 1 (b) were obtained by Brian Schmidt and R.P.K. at the Multiple Mirror Telescope; only two of these been published previously, in Baron et al. (1996). Photospheric–phase optical spectra of SN 1994I also have been published by Sasaki et al. (1994; spectra obtained from $`5`$ to $`+8`$ days) and Clocchiatti et al. (1996; from $`2`$ to $`+56`$ days).

The most detailed discussions of line identifications in SN 1994I, and SNe Ic in general, have been by Clocchiatti et al. (1996, 1997). The major contributors to some of the spectral features in Figure 1 are clear. The Ca II H and K doublet ($`\lambda \lambda 3934,3968`$) and the Ca II infrared triplet ($`\lambda \lambda 8498,8542,8662`$) are responsible for the P Cygni features at $`36004000`$ Å and $`80008800`$ Å, respectively. The Na I D lines ($`\lambda \lambda 5890,5892`$) produce the feature at $`55006000`$ Å (and interstellar Na I in M51 produces the narrow absorption near 5900 Å). O I $`\lambda 7773`$ produces the feature at $`74007900`$ Å. The structure from about 4300 to 5400 Å is recognizable as blended Fe II lines.

The line identifications of the other features — including those in the HST ultraviolet and those longward of 8800 Å— are less obvious. As mentioned above, the strong absorption near 10,250 Å, which we will refer to as “the infrared absorption”, has previously been identified with He I $`\lambda 10830`$ but we will consider other possible contributors.

Figure 1 shows at a glance that, as is usual for supernovae, the absorption features tend to drift redward with time, as line formation takes place in ever deeper, slower layers of the ejected matter. Anticipating the results of the analysis presented in Section 3, we show in Figure 2 the velocity at the photosphere, $`v_{phot}`$, that we adopt for our spectral fits. Our adopted values of $`v_{phot}`$ fall from 17,500 km s<sup>-1</sup> at $`4`$ days to 7000 km s<sup>-1</sup> at $`+26`$ days.

## 3 Procedure

We use the fast, parameterized, supernova spectrum–synthesis code SYNOW to make a “direct” analysis (Fisher et al. 1997, 1999) of spectra of SN 1994I. The goal is to establish line identifications and intervals of ejection velocity within which the presence of lines of various ions is detected, without adopting any particular hydrodynamical model. The composition and velocity constraints that we obtain with SYNOW then can provide guidance to those who compute hydrodynamical explosion models and to those who carry out computationally intensive non–local–thermodynamic–equilibrium (NLTE) spectrum modeling. The SYNOW code is described briefly by Fisher et al. (1997) and in detail by Fisher (1999). In our work on SN 1994I we have made use of the paper by Hatano et al. (1999), which presents plots of LTE Sobolev line optical depths versus temperature for six different compositions that might be expected to be encountered in supernovae, and displays SYNOW optical spectra for 45 individual ions that can be regarded as candidates for producing identifiable features in supernova spectra. (Electronic data from the Hatano et al.  paper, now extended from the optical to include the infrared, can be obtained at the website www.nhn.ou.edu/$``$baron/papers.html.)

For comparison with each observed spectrum in Figure 1 we have calculated many synthetic spectra with various values of the following fitting parameters. The parameter $`T_{bb}`$ is the temperature of the underlying blackbody continuum; the values that we use range from 18,000 K at $`4`$ days to 6000 K at $`+26`$ days. The parameter $`T_{exc}`$ is the excitation temperature. For each ion that is introduced, the optical depth of a reference line is a fitting parameter, and the optical depths of the other lines of the ion are calculated for Boltzmann excitation at $`T_{exc}`$. Little physical significance is attached to $`T_{exc}`$; even if Boltzmann excitation held strictly, the adopted value of $`T_{exc}`$ would represent some kind of average over the line forming region. The values that we use range from 12,000 K to 5000 K. The radial dependence of the line optical depths is taken to be a power law, $`\tau v^8`$, and the line source function is that of resonance scattering. The most interesting fitting parameters (and therefore the only ones that we quote for each individual synthetic spectrum) are velocity parameters. The values that we use for $`v_{phot}`$, the velocity of matter at the photosphere, have been plotted in Figure 2. The outer edge of the line forming region is at $`v_{max}`$, which we have fixed at 40,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>. In addition, we can introduce restrictions on the velocity interval within which each ion is present; when the minimum velocity assigned to an ion is greater than $`v_{phot}`$, the line is said to be detached from the photosphere.

## 4 Results

Although we have fit all of the spectra in Figure 1, only the fits to the Lick spectra (and the single HST spectrum) are shown here, because they have more extended wavelength coverage than the MMT spectra. Instead of discussing the spectra in chronological order, we first discuss those obtained from $`+7`$ to $`+26`$ days, and then work backward in time from $`+4`$ to $`4`$ days. One reason for doing this is that establishing line identifications generally is more difficult at earlier times, when line formation takes place in higher velocity layers and the blending is more severe.

### 4.1 From $`+7`$ to $`+26`$ days

Figure 3 compares the $`+7`$ day observed spectrum to a synthetic spectrum that has $`v_{phot}=10,000`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>. The synthetic spectrum includes lines of C II, O I, Na I, Ca II, Ti II, and Fe II, and the fit is good. (The excessive height of the synthetic peaks in the blue part of the spectrum is not of great concern; the number of lines having significant optical depth rises very rapidly toward short wavelengths \[e.g., Wagoner, Perez, & Vasu 1991\] so our SYNOW synthetic spectra often are underblanketed in the blue because of missing weak lines of unused ions.) The identifications of Ca II, O I, Fe II, and Na I are definite. Lines of Ti II have been introduced to fit the absorption near 4200 Å, and we consider Ti II to be positively identified also. Lines of C II also are introduced, but detached at 16,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, so that $`\lambda 6580`$ can account for most of the observed absorption near 6200 Å. At some epochs it is difficult to decide between detached C II $`\lambda `$6580 and the undetached Si II $`\lambda \lambda `$6347,6371 doublet (cf. Fisher et al. 1997), but at this epoch Si II would produce an absorption too far to the blue of the observed one. We consider the C II identification to be probably, but not definitely, correct. The main spectral features that remain to be explained, then, are those around 7000 and 9000 Å, and the IR absorption.

The $`+7`$ day observed spectrum appears again in Figure 4, where it is compared to three more synthetic spectra. The one in the upper panel is like the one shown in Figure 3, except that (1) He I lines have been introduced in an attempt to account for the core of the IR absorption, and (2) the C II lines have been removed to allow the effects of the optical He I lines to be seen more clearly. For He I, instead of making our usual approximation that the relative populations of the lower levels of interest are given by LTE at excitation temperature $`T_{exc}`$, we assume that the populations of the lower levels of the optical He I lines (2<sup>3</sup>P, 2<sup>1</sup>P) are further reduced, relative to the population of the lower level of $`\lambda 10830`$ (2<sup>3</sup>S), by the geometrical dilution factor (which has the value 0.5 at the photosphere and decreases with radius). This is a reasonable approximation that is roughly consistent with the results of detailed calculations for He I by Lucy (1991; his Figure 3) and Mazzali & Lucy (1998; their Figures 1 and 8). Even with this reduction in the optical depths of the optical He I lines relative to that of $`\lambda 10830`$, when we try to account for the entire infrared absorption with $`\lambda 10830`$ the synthetic features produced by the optical lines, $`\lambda `$7065 (2<sup>3</sup>P), $`\lambda `$5876 (2<sup>3</sup>P), and $`\lambda `$6678 (2<sup>1</sup>P), are much too strong. As shown in the upper panel of Figure 4, even when we attempt to account only for the core of the infrared absorption with $`\lambda 10830`$, by reducing the He I optical depth and detaching the He I lines at 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, the optical He I lines are still too strong. Thus we find that it is difficult to account for the IR absorption with He I $`\lambda 10830`$ alone.

Lines of C I have been discussed in connection with the infrared feature by Woosley & Eastman (1997) and Baron et al. (1996). We find that like He I $`\lambda 10830`$, C I (multiplet 1, $`\lambda 10695`$) cannot account for the entire infrared absorption without compromising the fit in the optical. But, as shown in the middle panel of Figure 4, we find that undetached C I $`\lambda 10695`$, combined with He I $`\lambda 10830`$ detached at 18,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, can do so. C I also accounts for the observed absorption near 9300 Å and it helps near 6800 Å, although it does produce an absorption that is stronger than the observed one near 8800 Å. Introducing C I allows the optical depth of He I $`\lambda 10830`$ to be reduced to the extent that the optical He I lines do no harm.

To complicate matters, however, the lower panel of Figure 4 shows that lines of Si I (mainly multiplets 4, $`\lambda `$12047; 5, $`\lambda `$10790; 6, $`\lambda `$10482; and 13, $`\lambda `$10869), detached at 14,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, can account for the entire infrared absorption while also doing some good in the optical, especially near 7000 Å. This means that without bringing in additional information, such as convincing identifications of very weak optical He I lines (cf. Clocchiatti et al. 1996, 1997) or rigorous NLTE calculations of line optical depths for a hydrodynamical model whose spectrum matches the entire observed spectrum (cf. Baron et al. 1996, 1999), there is some ambiguity concerning the identification of the infrared absorption. It may be primarily a blend of He I and C I, but at present we cannot exclude the possibility that it is partly, or even entirely, produced by Si I.

Figure 5 compares the composite $`+11`$ day HST spectrum and $`+10`$ day optical spectrum to a synthetic spectrum that has $`v_{phot}=9500`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>. Now C II is detached at 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>. In addition to the ions needed for the optical spectrum, we have introduced Mg II and Cr II for the UV. More ions would need to be introduced to account for all of the structure in the observed UV, but we leave detailed fitting of the HST UV for future work.

Figure 6 compares the $`+26`$ day observed spectrum to synthetic spectra that have $`v_{phot}=7000`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>. In the upper panel the fit is good, except (1) the synthetic O I feature at 8900 Å is too strong, (2) the observed strong net emission in the Ca II infrared triplet cannot be produced with the resonance–scattering source function that we are using, and (3) there is something missing from the synthetic spectrum around 7000 Å. In the lower panel, lines of O II are introduced. The only ones that make a difference are the forbidden lines \[O II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$7320,7330, which we (Fisher et al. 1999) have discussed in connection with the peculiar Type Ia SN 1991T. In SN 1991T our only alternative to introducing the \[O II\] lines was to lower our continuum placement and accept the observed flux minimum near 7000 Å as merely a gap between emissions. We would not necessarily expect the same gap to appear in the SN Ia 1991T and the SN Ic 1994I, so the evidence for the presence of the \[O II\] lines in SN 1994I strengthens the case for their presence in SN 1991T. We regard the identification of the \[O II\] lines in SN 1994I to be probable, but not definite.

Figure 7, for the $`+26`$ day spectrum, is analogous to Figure 4 for the $`+7`$ day spectrum. In the top panel He I, detached at 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, accounts for the infrared absorption, but He I $`\lambda 5876`$ is too strong in the synthetic spectrum. In the middle panel undetached C I and He I detached at 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> combine to account for the IR absorption. In the lower panel, Si I detached at 14,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> accounts for the infrared absorption on its own.

### 4.2 From $`+4`$ to $`4`$ days

Now we return to earlier epochs. Figure 8 compares the $`+4`$ day observed spectrum with a synthetic spectrum that has $`v_{phot}=11,000`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>. At this epoch we use a combination of Si II, undetached but with a maximum velocity of 12,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, and C II detached at 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> to account for the absorption near 6200 Å. Lines of Sc II and C I also have been introduced, but the fit would be much the same without them and we don’t consider their identification to be established. Figures 9 and 10 compare the $`2`$ and $`4`$ day observed spectra with synthetic spectra that have $`v_{phot}=16,500`$ and 17,500 km s<sup>-1</sup> and maximum Si II velocities of 18,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> and 20,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, respectively. Now lines of Mg II also have been introduced but the identification is not definite. One or more additional ions would need to be included to fit these spectra at wavelengths longer than 9000 Å.

### 4.3 The Inferred Composition Structure

Figure 11 shows our constraints on the composition structure as obtained from the optical spectrum. The arrows show the velocity intervals within which we think the ions have been detected in the observed spectra. The only ion on which we imposed a maximum velocity was Si II, around 20,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>. The only ion that we detached was C II, around 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>; this may represent the minimum velocity of the ejected carbon.

Because of the ambiguity of the identification of the infrared absorption, He I, C I, and Si I are not shown in Figure 11. When He I $`\lambda 10830`$ has been invoked to account for part of the IR absorption, it has been detached at 15,000 or 18,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>; thus if helium is present at all, this is our estimate for its minimum velocity. For comparison, we note that in model CO21 of Iwamoto et al. (1994) the minimum carbon velocity is at about 12,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> and that of helium is at about 14,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>. In model 7A of Woosley, Langer, & Weaver (1995), which is favored by Woosley & Eastman (1997) for SN 1994I, the minimum velocities of helium and carbon are lower, about 6000 and 8000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, respectively.

A problem with attributing the infrared absorption to a blend of detached He I $`\lambda `$10830 and undetached C I $`\lambda `$10695 is that using undetached C I down to 7000 km s<sup>-1</sup> probably is inconsistent with using C II detached at 15,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> for the optical spectrum, because carbon ionization is unlikely to increase outward. On the other hand, when Si I has been invoked to account for the infrared absorption it has been detached at 14,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>. This is not necessarily inconsistent with our use of Si II between 10,000 and 20,000 km s<sup>-1</sup> for the optical spectrum if, as expected, silicon ionization decreases outward.

Figure 12 shows SYNOW plots in the infrared region, for four ions that can produce strong absorption features near the observed IR absorption. This figure shows that observed infrared spectra of SNe Ic would help to resolve the true identity of the infrared absorption; e.g., if Si I is responsible for the infrared absorption then we would expect another conspicuous Si I absorption near 11,700 Å.

### 4.4 Mass and Kinetic Energy

Our adopted values of $`v_{phot}`$ can be used to make rough estimates of the mass and kinetic energy above the photosphere as a function of time. It is easily shown that for spherical symmetry and an $`r^n`$ density distribution, the mass (in $`M_{}`$) and the kinetic energy (in $`10^{51}`$ ergs) above the electron–scattering optical depth $`\tau _{es}`$ are

$$M=(1.2\times 10^4)v_4^2t_d^2\mu _e\frac{n1}{n3}\tau _{es},$$

$$E=(1.2\times 10^4)v_4^4t_d^2\mu _e\frac{n1}{n5}\tau _{es},$$

where $`v_4`$ is $`v_{phot}`$ in units of 10,000 km s<sup>-1</sup>, $`t_d`$ is the time since explosion in days, and $`\mu _e`$ is the mean molecular weight per free electron. For illustration we use $`n=8`$, the value we used for the synthetic spectrum calculations, but it should be noted that the value of $`n`$ is not well constrained by our fits. We assume that the explosion occurred on March 30, i.e., that the rise time to maximum brightness was 9 days, and that $`\mu _e=14`$ (e.g., a mixture of singly ionized carbon and oxygen). At $`4`$ days, using $`v_4=1.75`$ and $`\tau _{es}=2/3`$ leads to $`M=0.1M_{}`$ and $`E=0.6\times 10^{51}`$ ergs. At $`+26`$ days, $`v_4=0.7`$ and $`\tau _{es}=2/3`$ give $`M=0.9M_{}`$ and $`E=0.8\times 10^{51}`$ ergs. The latter values may be overestimates of the values above the photosphere at $`+26`$ days because at this epoch the photosphere could be at $`\tau _{es}<2/3`$ owing to the contribution of lines to the pseudo–continuous opacity. Of course, there is additional mass (but not much kinetic energy) beneath the photosphere. In any case, our spectroscopic estimates of the mass and kinetic energy of SN 1994I are not inconsistent with previous estimates based on light–curve studies.

## 5 Discussion

The photospheric–phase optical spectra of SN 1994I can be fit rather well by SYNOW synthetic spectra that include only “reasonable” ions, i.e., those that can regarded as candidate ions based on LTE optical–depth calculations (Hatano et al. 1999). In addition to the obvious Ca II, Na I, O I, and Fe II, we have invoked Ti II, C II, Si II, and \[O II\], and at the earliest phases, C I, Sc II, and Mg II. We regard the identification of Ti II to be definite. Although it can be difficult to distinguish Si II from detached C II, we think that both Si II and C II are needed. We regard the presence of \[O II\], Sc II, and Mg II to be probable.

It is difficult to account for the infrared absorption with He I $`\lambda 10830`$ alone. It may be a blend of C I $`\lambda 10695`$ and He I $`\lambda `$10830, but then there is an apparent inconsistency between the minimum velocities of carbon as inferred from C I and C II. Alternatively, the entire infrared feature can be fit by lines of Si I without compromising the fit in the optical. The true identification of the infrared absorption is a matter that can only be decided by means of detailed NLTE spectrum calculations for realistic hydrodynamical models whose emergent spectra closely match the rest of the optical and infrared spectrum.

The spectra of SN 1994I can be well fit with a simple model that includes the assumption of spherical symmetry. Thus, we certainly are not forced to invoke an asymmetry. However, the flux spectrum, unlike the polarization spectrum, is not very sensitive to a mild asymmetry (Jeffery & Branch 1990; Höflich et al. 1996), so the degree to which we can assert that SN 1994I was not very asymmetric (cf. Wang & Wheeler 1998) is unclear. We intend to investigate this issue in future work.

Our spectroscopic estimates of the kinetic energy carried by matter above the photosphere are consistent with previous estimates based on the light curve, i.e., they are near the canonical supernova value of $`10^{51}`$ ergs. In this respect, SN 1994I is valuable for comparison with the peculiar SNe Ic 1998bw and 1997ef. We find that the same spectroscopic procedure for estimating the kinetic energy gives much higher kinetic energies for SNe 1997ef and 1998bw (Branch 1999; Millard et al. in preparation). This leads us to believe that SNe 1997ef and 1998bw were hyper–energetic.

This work has been supported by NSF grants AST-9417102 to D.B., AST-9731450 to E.B., AST-9417213 to A.V.F., and NASA GO–2563.001 to the SINS group from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA under NASA contract NAS 5–26555.