Supernova Type Ia progenitors from merging double white dwarfs - Using a new population synthesis model

By S. Toonen, G. Nelemans, S. P. Portegies Zwart. 2012

224 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The study of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) has lead to greatly improved insights into many fields in astrophysics, however a theoretical explanation of the origin of these events is still lacking. We investigate the potential contribution to the SNIa rate from the population of merging double carbon-oxygen white dwarfs. We aim to develope a model that fits the observed SNIa progenitors as well as the observed close double white dwarf population. We differentiate between two scenarios for the common envelope (CE) evolution; the alpha-formalism based on the energy equation and the gamma-formalism that is based on the angular momentum equation. In one model we apply the alpha-formalism always. In the second model the gamma-formalism is applied, unless the binary contains a compact object or the CE is triggered by a tidal instability for which the alpha-formalism is used. The binary population synthesis code SeBa was used to evolve binary systems from the zero-age main sequence to the formation of double white dwarfs and subsequent mergers. SeBa has been thoroughly updated since the last publication of the content of the code. The limited sample of observed double white dwarfs is better represented by the simulated population using the gamma-formalism than the alpha-formalism. For both CE formalisms, we find that although the morphology of the simulated delay time distribution matches that of the observations within the errors, the normalisation and time-integrated rate per stellar mass are a factor 7-12 lower than observed. Furthermore, the characteristics of the simulated populations of merging double carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are discussed and put in the context of alternative SNIa models for merging double white dwarfs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0649abaa96aeeeca80ffd44876c05b426ef32f3f

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Citations in the corpus

Prospects for detection of detached double white dwarf binaries with Gaia, LSST and LISA (2017, methodology): “Moreover, the mass ratio distribution in the γα spans a wider range of values, which agrees better with the currently observed DWD population, while the majority of the population formed via αα scenario will show mass ratios around 0.5 (see Toonen et al. 2012, fig.”
Unveiling the gravitational universe at μ-Hz frequencies (2019, background): “Population synthesis models predict DWD systems, that undergo binary interactions during their evolution, span a vast frequency range from 10−7 to 10−2 Hz [265] while optical observations typically cover 10−5 −10−2 Hz frequencies(e.”
The evolution of hierarchical triple star-systems (2016, methodology): “The tracks are calculated with SeBa (Portegies Zwart and Verbunt 1996, Toonen et al. 2012).”
COSMIC Variance in Binary Population Synthesis (2019, background): “…2009), IBiS (Tutukov & Yungelson 1996, and references therin), BSE (Hurley et al. 2002), SeBa (Portegies Zwart & Verbunt 1996; Nelemans et al. 2001; Toonen et al. 2012), StarTrack (Belczynski et al. 2002, 2008), binary c (Izzard et al. 2004, 2006, 2009), COMPAS (Stevenson et al. 2017; Barrett et…”
Common envelope evolution: where we stand and how we can move forward (2012, background): “The recent work by Toonen et al. (2012) adopts a set of restrictions which may be useful guidelines: they do not apply the γ -prescription for a second episode of dynamically unstable mass transfer, nor when the companion star is a compact remnant, nor when the dynamical instability is due to a…”
Theoretical uncertainties of the Type Ia supernova rate (2014, background): “…model, with- out investigating in great detail the uncertainties in their model, or they investigated one uncertainty in binary evolution, such as the common envelope evolution (e.g. Yungelson & Livio 2000; Ruiter et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2009a, 2010; Mennekens et al. 2010; Toonen et al. 2012).”
Binary Black Hole Mergers from Field Triples: Properties, Rates, and the Impact of Stellar Evolution (2017, methodology): “G A ] 1 9 A pr 2 01 7 tion is modeled in a parametrized way through the fast stellar evolution code SeBa (Toonen et al. 2012).”
Merging black hole binaries: the effects of progenitor's metallicity, mass-loss rate and Eddington factor (2017, background): “Currently, only few population-synthesis codes adopt up-to-date metallicity-dependent prescriptions for stellar winds (e.g. Belczynski et al. 2010; Toonen et al. 2012; Mapelli et al. 2013; Spera et al. 2015; Spera & Mapelli 2017; Banerjee 2017).”