R-band light curves of type II supernovae

Theoretical predictions regarding early-time SN light curves in the ultraviolet (UV) and optical bands are thus quite robust. We present, for the first time, a sample of 57 R-band SN II light curves that are well-monitored during their rise, with >5 detections during the first 10 days after discovery, and a well-constrained time of explosion to within 1-3 days.

We show that the energy per unit mass (E/M) can be deduced to roughly a factor of five by comparing early-time optical data to the 2011 model of Rabinak & Waxman, while the progenitor radius cannot be determined based on R-band data alone. We find that SN II explosion energies span a range of E/M=(0.2-20)x10^51^erg/(10M_{sun}), and have a mean energy per unit mass of <E/M>=0.85x10^51^erg/(10M_{sun}), corrected for Malmquist bias.