Determine whether stripped-envelope supernova progenitors have a bimodal envelope-stripping origin

Determine whether the mechanisms responsible for removing the outer stellar layers of stripped-envelope supernova progenitors follow a bimodal distribution involving distinct single-star and binary-interaction channels.

Background

The paper discusses two non-mutually-exclusive explanations for stripped-envelope supernova progenitors: very massive single stars whose envelopes are removed by strong stellar winds, and lower-mass stars in interacting binary systems whose companions strip their envelopes. The observed combination of high star-formation efficiency and similar molecular-gas surface density does not uniquely distinguish these channels.

The authors explicitly retain the possibility that both mechanisms contribute in a bimodal progenitor population, leaving the relative structure of the envelope-stripping channels unresolved.