Little is observationally known about the progenitors of Type Ibc supernovae ( SNe ) or the typical activity of SNe progenitors in their final years .
Here , we analyze deep Large Binocular Telescope imaging data spanning the 4 years before and after the Type Ibc SN 2012fh using difference imaging .
We place 1 \sigma upper limits on the detection of the progenitor star at M _ { U } > -3.8 , M _ { B } > -3.1 , M _ { V } > -3.8 , and M _ { R } > -4.0 mag .
These limits are the tightest placed on a Type Ibc SNe to date and they largely rule out single star evolutionary models in favor of a binary channel as the origin of this SN .
We also constrain the activity of the progenitor to be small on an absolute scale , with the RMS UBVR optical variability \mathrel { \raise 1.29 pt \hbox { $ < $ } \mkern - 14.0 mu \lower 2.58 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } 2500 % \text { L } _ { \odot } and long-term dimming or brightening trends \mathrel { \raise 1.29 pt \hbox { $ < $ } \mkern - 14.0 mu \lower 2.58 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } 1000 % \text { L } _ { \odot } / \text { year } in all four bands .