RATES AND DELAY TIMES OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

By A. Ruiter, Krzysztof Belczyński, Chris L. Fryer. 2009

217 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We analyze the evolution of binary stars to calculate synthetic rates and delay times of the most promising Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) progenitors. We present and discuss evolutionary scenarios in which a white dwarf (WD) reaches the Chandrasekhar mass and potentially explodes in a SNe Ia. We consider Double Degenerate (DDS; merger of two WDs), Single Degenerate (SDS; WD accreting from H-rich companion), and AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn; WD accreting from He-rich companion) scenarios. The results are presented for two different star formation histories: burst (elliptical-like galaxies) and continuous (spiral-like galaxies). It is found that delay times for the DDS in our standard model (with common envelope efficiency αCE = 1) follow a power-law distribution. For the SDS we note a wide range of delay times, while AM CVn progenitors produce a short burst of SNe Ia at early times. The DDS median delay time falls between ∼0.5 and 1 Gyr; the SDS between ∼2 and 3 Gyr; and the AM CVn between ∼0.8 and 0.6 Gyr depending on the assumed αCE. For a Milky-Way-like (MW-like) galaxy, we estimate the rates of SNe Ia arising from different progenitors as: ∼10−4 yr−1 for the SDS and AM CVn, and ∼10−3 yr−1 for the DDS. We point out that only the rates for two merging carbon–oxygen WDs, the only systems found in the DDS, are consistent with the observed rates for typical MW-like spirals. We also note that DDS progenitors are the dominant population in elliptical galaxies. The fact that the delay time distribution for the DDS follows a power law implies more SNe Ia (per unit mass) in young rather than in aged populations. Our results do not exclude other scenarios, but strongly indicate that the DDS is the dominant channel generating SNe Ia in spiral galaxies, at least in the framework of our adopted evolutionary models. Since it is believed that WD mergers cannot produce a thermonuclear explosion given the current understanding of accreting WDs, either the evolutionary calculations along with accretion physics are incorrect, or the explosion calculations are inaccurate and need to be revisited.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f5e123047ca9f8fbb0ab1a0c2793206fb772c70

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. F. Mannucci
3. D. Maoz
4. L. Hernquist
5. E. Quataert
6. Volker Springel
7. G. Nelemans
8. D. Kasen

Citations in the corpus

• DOUBLE-DETONATION SUB-CHANDRASEKHAR SUPERNOVAE: SYNTHETIC OBSERVABLES FOR MINIMUM HELIUM SHELL MASS MODELS (2010, result): “In particular, binary evolution population synthesis calculations predict rates that are an order of magnitude too low compared to the observed rate of SNe Ia (Ruiter et al. 2009, but see Meng & Yang 2010).”
• ACCELERATING COMPACT OBJECT MERGERS IN TRIPLE SYSTEMS WITH THE KOZAI RESONANCE: A MECHANISM FOR “PROMPT” TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE, GAMMA-RAY BURSTS, AND OTHER EXOTICA (2010, background): “If a1 is less than a few AU, then the binary will undergo one or more mass transfer and common envelope (CE) evolutionary phases, that decreasea1 from its initial value by a factor of ∼ 10− 100 (Iben & Tutukov 1984, 1985; Iben & Livio 1993; Ruiter et al. 2009).”
• NORMAL TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE FROM VIOLENT MERGERS OF WHITE DWARF BINARIES (2012, background): “Many recent findings including SN rates from population synthesis studies (Ruiter et al. 2009), studies of the delaytime distribution of observed SNe Ia (e.g. Maoz et al. 2010), the lack of radio emission of SNe Ia (e.g. Hancock et al. 2011), the lack of hydrogen emission in nebular spectra of SNe…”
• DETONATIONS IN SUB-CHANDRASEKHAR-MASS C+O WHITE DWARFS (2010, background): “Secondly, population synthesis studies predict large numbers of binary systems with accreting C+O WDs: Ruiter et al. (2009) estimate a Galactic rate of∼ 10−3 yr−1 for possible explosions of sub-MCh C+O WDs accreting from helium-rich companions.”
• TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA RATE MEASUREMENTS TO REDSHIFT 2.5 FROM CANDELS: SEARCHING FOR PROMPT EXPLOSIONS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE (2014, background): “Interpretation and Speculation As described above, our analysis of all available SN Ia rates measurements suggests that the fraction of SN Ia explosions occurring 500 Myr after formation is fP∼50%.”
• Three-dimensional delayed-detonation models with nucleosynthesis for Type Ia supernovae (2012, background): “The issue is further complicated by the fact that the evolution of zero-age binary systems towards potential SN Ia progenitor systems is still not well understood and remains a very active area of research today (e.g. Ruiter et al. 2009, 2011; Mennekens et al. 2010; Wang et al. 2010).”
• 3D deflagration simulations leaving bound remnants: a model for 2002cx-like Type Ia supernovae (2012, background): “At the same time their predicted total SN Ia rate for all progenitor channels considered (single-degenerate Chandrasekhar-mass scenario and double-degenerate mergers with a total mass above the Chandrasekhar-limit) is comparable to the Galactic SN Ia rate (Ruiter et al. 2009, figure 2).”
• Violent mergers of nearly equal-mass white dwarf as progenitors of subluminous Type Ia supernovae (2011, background): “Despite being favored by stellar population synthesis studies (e.g. Ruiter et al. 2009), this scenario has received little attention (see, e.g. Hillebrandt & Niemeyer 2000).”
• THE LONG-TERM EVOLUTION OF DOUBLE WHITE DWARF MERGERS (2011, background): “Given the double WD merger rate of a few per 1000 yr (Nelemans et al. 2001; Ruiter et al. 2009), a Milky Way-type galaxy should harbor & a few dozen of these bright H- and He-deficient sources at any time.”
• Supernova remnants: the X-ray perspective (2011, background): “The only stable white dwarf accretors seem to be supersoft sources2, but their population seems too small to account for the observed supernova rate (e.g. Ruiter et al., 2009).”
• Supernova Type Ia progenitors from merging double white dwarfs - Using a new population synthesis model (2012, methodology): “This is commonly used to compare observational and synthetic rates to constrain different physical scenarios (e.g. Yungelson & Livio 2000; Ruiter et al. 2009; Mennekens et al. 2010, see also Sect.”
• HELIUM-IGNITED VIOLENT MERGERS AS A UNIFIED MODEL FOR NORMAL AND RAPIDLY DECLINING TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE (2013, methodology): “The population synthesis calculations of Ruiter et al. (2009) predict a total SN Ia rate that is comparable to the Galactic SN Ia rate if both double-degenerate mergers with a total mass above the Chandrasekhar-limit and single-degenerate Chandrasekharmass models are considered.”
• Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Detonations Revisited (2017, background): “…that the Chandrasekhar-mass (MCh) scenario is responsible for the bulk of SNe Ia (e.g., Leonard 2007; Shen & Bildsten 2007; Kerzendorf et al. 2009; Ruiter et al. 2009; Kasen 2010; Bloom et al. 2012; Schaefer & Pagnotta 2012; Woods & Gilfanov 2013; Scalzo et al. 2014; Johansson et al. 2016; Dhawan…”
• Nearby supernova rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search - IV. A recovery method for the delay-time distribution (2010, background): “…accretion) that is sometimes computationally intractable except in the most rudimentary, parametrized forms (e.g., Yungelson & Livio 2000; Hurley et al. 2002; Han & Podsiadlowski 2004; Nelemans et al. 2005; Ruiter et al. 2009; Bogomazov & Tutukov 2009; Meng & Yang 2010; Mennekens et al. 2010).”
• SUB-CHANDRASEKHAR WHITE DWARF MERGERS AS THE PROGENITORS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE (2010, background): “…number of SN Ia per solar mass formed,∼0.0023, is higher than expected for Chandrasekhar-mass systems, both from counts of suitable intermediate-mass progenitors (e.g., Maoz 2008) and from population synthesis calculations (for recent work, see, e.g., Ruiter et al. 2009; Mennekens et al. 2010).”
• Double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar supernovae: can minimum helium shell masses detonate the core? (2010, background): “Recent population synthesis studies suggest that such events are in principle frequent enough to account for a significant part of the observed SN Ia rate (Belczynski et al. 2005; Ruiter et al. 2009)1.”
• 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).”
• THE EFFECT OF HOST GALAXIES ON TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE IN THE SDSS-II SUPERNOVA SURVEY (2010, background): “…for how the progenitor system accretes mass could be different between galaxy types, either accretion from a nearby companion star (which could have different metallicities depending on the stellar populations in the host galaxy types) or the merger with another white dwarf (Ruiter et al. 2009).”