Effective supernova dust yields from rotating and nonrotating stellar progenitors

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, “Sapienza” Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy
² INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
³ INFN, Sezione Roma I, Dipartimento di Fisica, “Sapienza” Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy
⁴ Sapienza School for Advanced Studies, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Roma, Italy
⁵ Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
⁶ INFN. Sezione di Perugia, via A. Pascoli s/n, 06125 Perugia, Italy
⁷ INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 11 June 2025
Accepted: 29 January 2026

Abstract

Supernovae (SNe) are believed to be the dominant sources of dust production at high redshift. However, the reverse shock generated by the interaction of the SN forward shock and the interstellar medium (ISM) can significantly reduce the mass of newly formed dust in SN ejecta. This study quantifies the mass, composition, and grain size distribution of surviving dust after the passage of the reverse shock using the GRASHrev model. Our analysis covers a grid of SN models with progenitor masses of 13 M_⊙ ≤ m_⋆ ≤ 120 M_⊙ and metallicity −3 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ 0, and we explore, for the first time, the effect of stellar rotation, considering two initial velocities v = 0 and 300 km s⁻¹. The SN explosions are assumed to occur in a uniform ISM with densities n_ISM = 0.05, 0.5, and 5 cm⁻³. We find that the larger grains (≳10 nm) are more resistant to destruction by the reverse shock, with amorphous carbon dominating the surviving dust mass in most models. The surviving dust mass decreases with increasing ISM density. For nonrotating progenitors, the maximum mass of dust surviving the passage of the reverse shock is ≃0.02 M_⊙, and it is released by SN explosions of a 120 M_⊙ progenitor with [Fe/H] = 0 in the ISM density 0.5 cm⁻³, corresponding to ≃4% of the initial dust mass before the passage of the reverse shock. Similarly, among the rotating progenitors, the maximum surviving mass fraction is ≃5%, with a final dust mass of ≃0.03 M_⊙ in [Fe/H] = −1 models. Although the reverse shock has a strong destructive impact, our results indicate that on very short timescales of ≲30 Myr since the onset of star formation, SNe can enrich the ISM with carbonaceous grains ranging in size from approximately 1 nm to 100 nm (up to ≃1 μm in nonrotating models). This is especially notable given the recent detection of the 2175 Å UV extinction bump in galaxies at z > 6, suggesting the early presence of such dust.