2009ApJ...696..953C

We explore the observational characteristics of jet-driven supernovae (SNe) by simulating bipolar-jet-driven explosions in a red supergiant (RSG) progenitor. We present results of four models in which we hold the injected kinetic energy at a constant 10⁵¹ erg across all jet models but vary the specific characteristics of the jets to explore the influence of the nature of jets on the structure of the SN ejecta. We evolve the explosions past shock-breakout and into quasi-homologous expansion of the SN envelope into a RSG wind. The simulations have sufficient numerical resolution to study the stability of the flow. Our simulations show the development of fluid instabilities that produce pristine helium clumps in the hydrogen envelope. The oppositely directed, nickel-rich jets give a large-scale asymmetry that may account for the nonspherical excitation and substructure of spectral lines such as Hα and He I 10830 Å. Jets with a large fraction of kinetic to thermal energy punch through the progenitor envelope and give rise to explosions that would be observed to be asymmetric from the earliest epochs, inconsistent with spectropolarimetric measurements of Type II SNe. Jets with higher thermal energy fractions result in explosions that are roughly spherical at large radii but are significantly elongated at smaller radii, deep inside the ejecta, in agreement with the polarimetric observations. We present shock-breakout light curves that indicate that strongly aspherical shock breakouts are incompatible with recent Galaxy Evolution Explorer observations of shock breakout from RSG stars. Comparison with observations indicates that jets must deposit their kinetic energy efficiently throughout the ejecta while in the hydrogen envelope. Thermal-energy-dominated jets satisfy this criterion and yield many of the observational characteristics of Type II SNe.