EVLA OBSERVATIONS CONSTRAIN THE ENVIRONMENT AND PROGENITOR SYSTEM OF Type Ia SUPERNOVA 2011fe

By L. Chomiuk, A. Soderberg, M. Moe, R. Chevalier, M. Rupen, C. Badenes, Raffaella Margutti, C. Fransson, W. Fong, J. Dittmann. 2012

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We report unique Expanded Very Large Array observations of SN 2011fe representing the most sensitive radio study of a Type Ia supernova to date. Our data place direct constraints on the density of the surrounding medium at radii ∼1015–1016 cm, implying an upper limit on the mass loss rate from the progenitor system of (assuming a wind speed of 100 km s−1) or expansion into a uniform medium with density nCSM ≲ 6 cm−3. Drawing from the observed properties of non-conservative mass transfer among accreting white dwarfs, we use these limits on the density of the immediate environs to exclude a phase space of possible progenitor systems for SN 2011fe. We rule out a symbiotic progenitor system and also a system characterized by high accretion rate onto the white dwarf that is expected to give rise to optically thick accretion winds. Assuming that a small fraction, 1%, of the mass accreted is lost from the progenitor system, we also eliminate much of the potential progenitor parameter space for white dwarfs hosting recurrent novae or undergoing stable nuclear burning. Therefore, we rule out much of the parameter space associated with popular single degenerate progenitor models for SN 2011fe, leaving a limited phase space largely inhabited by some double degenerate systems, as well as exotic single degenerates with a sufficient time delay between mass accretion and SN explosion.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/22e3c6a1852f53c403c95cd870d077769118dc9f

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Spectrophotometric time series of SN 2011fe from the Nearby Supernova Factory (2013, background): “Radio and x-ray observations probing the circumstellar environment of SN 2011fe imply a progenitor system with a mass loss rate as low as 6× 10−10 M⊙ yr−1, severely constraining models where the secondary is not a white dwarf (Chomiuk et al. 2012; Horesh et al. 2012; Margutti et al. 2012).”
The delay-time distribution of Type Ia supernovae from Sloan II (2012, background): “…(Kasen 2010) due to ejecta hitting a SD red-giant donor (e.g. Nugent et al. 2011; Bloom et al. 2012; Brown et al. 2012), or lack of early radio and X-ray emission, expected if the SN blast wave were to encounter a circumstellar wind from a SD donor (e.g. Chomiuk et al. 2012; Horesh et al. 2012).”
Theoretical uncertainties of the Type Ia supernova rate (2014, background): “…a SN Ia which exploded in a nearby galaxy, showed no evidence of interaction with circumstellar material, in radio, X-ray and optical (e.g. Margutti et al. 2012; Chomiuk et al. 2012; Patat et al. 2013) and pre-explosion images exclude most types of donors stars of the SD channel (Li et al. 2011a).”
On the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2018, unknown): “6× 10−10M yr−1 (Chomiuk et al. 2012).”
Three-dimensional delayed-detonation models with nucleosynthesis for Type Ia supernovae (2012, background): “…from theorists for the double degenerate channel (Gilfanov & Bogdán 2010; Pakmor et al. 2010; Pakmor et al. 2011; Pakmor et al. 2012), culminating in mounting evidence that SN 2011fe was possibly due to a merger of two white dwarfs (e.g. Bloom et al. 2012; Chomiuk et al. 2012; Röpke et al. 2012).”
Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2013, methodology): “On the other hand, Chomiuk et al. (2012a) use extensive radio observations to argue that the environment of V407 Cyg is not one typical of SNe Ia.”