Core-collapse supernova ( SN ) explosions mark the end of the tumultuous life of massive stars .
Determining the nature of their progenitors is a crucial step towards understanding the properties of SNe .
Until recently , no progenitor has been directly detected for SN of type Ibc , which are believed to come from massive stars that lose their hydrogen envelope through stellar winds and from binary systems where the companion has stripped the H envelope from the primary .
Here we analyze recently reported observations of iPTF13bvn , which could possibly be the first detection of a SN Ib progenitor based on pre-explosion images .
Very interestingly , the recently published Geneva models of single stars can reproduce the observed photometry of the progenitor candidate and its mass-loss rate , confirming a recently proposed scenario .
We find that a single WR star with initial mass in the range 31–35 \mathit { M } _ { \odot } fits the observed photometry of the progenitor of iPTF13bvn .
The progenitor likely has a luminosity of \log ( \mathit { L } _ { \star } / \mathit { L } _ { \odot } ) \sim 5.55 , surface temperature \sim 45000 ~ { } K , and mass of \sim 10.9 ~ { } \mathit { M } _ { \odot } at the time of explosion .
Our non-rotating 32 \mathit { M } _ { \odot } model overestimates the derived radius of the progenitor , although this could likely be reconciled with a fine-tuned model of a more massive ( between 40 and 50 \mathit { M } _ { \odot } ) , hotter , and luminous progenitor .
Our models indicate a very uncertain ejecta mass of \sim 8 ~ { } \mathit { M } _ { \odot } , which is higher than the average of the SN Ib ejecta mass that is derived from the lightcurve ( 2–4 \mathit { M } _ { \odot } ) .
This possibly high ejecta mass could produce detectable effects in the iPTF13bvn lightcurve and spectrum .
If the candidate is indeed confirmed to be the progenitor , our results suggest that stars with relatively high initial masses ( > 30 ~ { } \mathit { M } _ { \odot } ) can produce visible SN explosions at their deaths and do not collapse directly to a black hole .