Failed supernovae are thought to create stellar black holes by the collapsing of a red supergiant star in the early stages of a supernova. When the star can no longer support itself, the core collapses completely, forming a stellar-mass black hole, and consuming the nascent supernova without having the massive explosion. For a distant observer, the red supergiant star will seem to wink out of existence with little or no flare-up. The observed instances of these disappearances seem to involve supergiant stars with masses above 17 solar masses.
Failed supernovae are one of several events that theoretically signal the advent of a black hole born from an extremely massive star, others including hypernovae and long-duration gamma-ray bursts.
Structure and process
Theoretically, a red supergiant star may be too massive to explode into a supernova, and collapse directly into being a black hole, without the bright flash. They would however generate a burst of gravitational waves. This process would occur in the higher mass red supergiants, explaining the absence of observed supernovae with such progenitors.[2][3][4]
^Reynolds, Thomas M.; Fraser, Morgan; Gilmore, Gerard (21 July 2015). "Gone without a bang: An archival HST survey for disappearing massive stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 453 (3) (published November 2015): 2885–2900. arXiv:1507.05823. Bibcode:2015MNRAS.453.2885R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1809. S2CID119116538.
^Gerke, J. R.; Kochanek, C. S.; Stanek, K. Z. (6 November 2014). "The Search for Failed Supernovae with The Large Binocular Telescope: First Candidates". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 450 (3) (published July 2015): 3289–3305. arXiv:1411.1761. Bibcode:2015MNRAS.450.3289G. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv776. S2CID119212331.