A consolidated grant for Sheffield Astrophysics - Transfer to Royal Holloway

The short lifetimes of massive stars means they will die as core-collapse supernovae close to where they were born, surrounded by the massive stars that formed alongside them. Stripped-envelope Type Ibc SNe, in other galaxies, are associated with strong H II region emission, suggesting young, high mass (>30Msun) progenitors, but this is in direct conflict with limits on the progenitors from pre-explosion observations (implying <25Msun stars in binaries). We request support for a unique synergy between our Hubble Space Telescope UV observations and Integral Field Spectroscopy with WEAVE to probe the physical connection between the stellar and gas components in the
resolved environments around Type Ibc supernovae, and reconcile the conflict between the inferred progenitor masses once and for all.