The progenitors of type Ia supernovae
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are being used as standard candles to measure the distant reaches of the Universe. Although accretion on to a white dwarf, that explodes in a thermonuclear runaway, is almost certainly the direct precursor of the supernova itself, there remains considerable doubt as to th...
| Asıl Yazarlar: | , , , , |
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| Materyal Türü: | Conference item |
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Institute of Physics Publishing
2001
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| Özet: | Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are being used as standard candles to measure the distant reaches of the Universe. Although accretion on to a white dwarf, that explodes in a thermonuclear runaway, is almost certainly the direct precursor of the supernova itself, there remains considerable doubt as to the identity of the progenitor systems. We consider exploding Chandrasekhar-mass CO white dwarfs and sub-Chandrasekhar edge lit detonations to be the most viable candidates. Based on detailed binary star population synthesis calculations we propose that many SNe la could be such ELDs of CO white dwarfs that have accreted a critical mass of helium. Both the actual mass of the ELD and its composition, a function of its progenitor's mass, can affect its peak luminosity and light curve shape. In general these two masses are correlated and an empirical relation between peak luminosity and light curve shape can be expected. However when we perform the population synthesis for progenitors of different metallicities we find a systematic shift in this relation that would systematically affect the use of SNe la as cosmic distance indicators. |
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