Two populations of progenitors for type ia supernovae

By F. Mannucci, M. Della Valle, N. P. INAF-IRA, INAF-Arcetri, Kavli Inst. STScIESA Inaf. 2005

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We use recent observations of the evolution of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate with redshift, the dependence of the SN Ia rate on the colours of the parent galaxies, and the enhancement of the SN Ia rate in radio-loud early-type galaxies to derive on robust empirical grounds, the delay time distribution (DTD) between the formation of the progenitor star and its explosion as an SN. Our analysis finds: (i) delay times as long as 3–4 Gyr, derived from observations of SNe Ia at high redshift, cannot reproduce the dependence of the SN Ia rate on the colours and on the radio-luminosity of the parent galaxies, as observed in the local Universe; (ii) the comparison between observed SN rates and a grid of theoretical ‘single-population’ DTDs shows that only a few of them are possibly consistent with observations. The most successful models are all predicting a peak of SN explosions soon after star formation and an extended tail in the DTD, and can reproduce the data but only at a modest statistical confidence level; (iii) present data are best matched by a bimodal DTD, in which about 50 per cent of SNe Ia (dubbed ‘prompt’ SNe Ia) explode soon after their stellar birth, in a time of the order of 108 yr, while the remaining 50 per cent (‘tardy’ SNe Ia) have a much wider distribution, well described by an exponential function with a decay time of about 3 Gyr. The presence in the DTD of both a strong peak at early times and a prolonged exponential tail, coupled with the well-established bimodal distribution of the decay rate (Δm15) and the systematic difference observed in the expansion velocities of the ejecta of SNe Ia in ellipticals and spirals, suggests the existence of two classes of progenitors. We discuss the cosmological implications of this result and make simple predictions, which are testable with future instrumentation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6a4462703b86b33d8af1853bf735de4e95e5cd73

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Citations in the corpus

RATES AND DELAY TIMES OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE (2009, methodology): “Only a small fraction ∼ 5% are ‘prompt’ (Mannucci et al. 2006) events with delay times t < 100 Myr.”
The structure and dynamical evolution of the stellar disc of a simulated Milky Way-mass galaxy (2016, methodology): “The rates of Type-II and Type-Ia SN are separtately computed from STARBURST99 and following Mannucci et al. (2006), respectively.”
Evidence of Environmental Dependencies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by Local H$\alpha$ (2013, background): “On the other hand, the wide range of observed ΣHα is an indication of SNe from both passive and star-forming regions, i.e. from both young and old progenitors (Scannapieco & Bildsten 2005; Mannucci et al. 2005, 2006; Sullivan et al. 2006).”
The dependence of Type Ia Supernovae luminosities on their host galaxies (2010, background): “There are suggestions that these effects may be the result of multiple astrophysical channels capable of producing SN Ia explosions (e.g. Scannapieco & Bildsten 2005; Mannucci et al. 2006).”
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): “A prompt component to the supernova Ia rate has been claimed by a number of authors (e.g., Scannapieco & Bildsten 2005; Mannucci et al. 2006; Aubourg et al. 2008; Brandt et al. 2010; Maoz & Badenes 2010; Maoz et al. 2010; Maoz et al. 2011).”
Origin and structure of the Galactic disc(s) (2009, background): “Mannucci et al. (2006) suggest that ∼half SNIa explode promptly (within 0.1 Gyr of star formation) and the rest explode at a rate that declines exponentially with time constant 3Gyr.”
Rates and Properties of Type Ia Supernovae as a Function of Mass and Star Formation in Their Host Galaxies (2006, methodology): “At the very least, as discussed by SB05 and Mannucci et al. (2006), there must be a broad range of delay times between a binary system formation and SN explosion.”
OBSERVING THE NEXT GALACTIC SUPERNOVA (2013, background): “SNe Ia Mannucci et al. (2006) and Brandt et al. (2010) find that SNe Ia progenitors can be described by a bimodal progenitor delay time distribution, with approximately half the SNe Ia occurring at stellar ages of order 100 Myr and the remaining half occurring on Gyr timescales.”
Reconstructing the star formation history of the Milky Way disc(s) from chemical abundances (2014, background): “However, more recent observations suggest that SNIa can occur very early in the history of the Universe, throwing doubt on the existence of any threshold (Mannucci et al. 2005, 2006), which is why we do not implement it in the main model used hitherto.”
Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift (2011, background): “Mannucci et al (2006) suggest that half the SNe Ia explode already after about 100 Myr while the other half have longer delay times of about 3 Gyr.”
THE SUPERNOVA DELAY TIME DISTRIBUTION IN GALAXY CLUSTERS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TYPE-Ia PROGENITORS AND METAL ENRICHMENT (2010, methodology): “…a proportionality between star-formation rate (SFR) and SN Ia rate per unit stellar mass in star forming galaxies, and on the other hand, a non-zero SN Ia rate in early-type galaxies with no current star formation (Mannucci et al. 2005, 2006; Scannapieco & Bildsten 2005; Sullivan et al. 2006).”
THE CLUSTER LENSING AND SUPERNOVA SURVEY WITH HUBBLE: AN OVERVIEW (2011, background): “Observations have suggested various different forms for the DTD (e.g., (Dahlen et al. 2004, 2008; Mannucci et al. 2006; Pritchet et al. 2008)).”
SNLS3: CONSTRAINTS ON DARK ENERGY COMBINING THE SUPERNOVA LEGACY SURVEY THREE-YEAR DATA WITH OTHER PROBES (2011, background): “When coupled with the evidence for both a young and old component to the SN Ia progenitor population (Mannucci et al. 2005, 2006; Sullivan et al. 2006b; Brandt et al. 2010), or at least a wide-range in the SN delay-times (Pritchet et al. 2008; Totani et al. 2008), a natural prediction is a subtle…”
Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations (2009, methodology): “In addition to the cosmic SNIa rate, Mannucci et al. (2006) attempt to use other observations to constrain the shape of the delay function.”
The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. II. A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics (2020, background): “The SNIa population is noticeably skewed toward being hosted within redder and more luminous galaxies than CCSNe, as expected for a population that largely traces stellar mass (although a component also traces young stars; e.g., Mannucci et al. 2006; Sullivan et al. 2006).”
Short-hard gamma-ray bursts (2007, background): “…that the population of SNe Ia is composed of two sub-groups - a long-lived component which is responsible for the entire SN Ia population in early type galaxies, and a short-lived component, which follows the star formation rate (Mannucci et al. , 2005, 2006; Scannapieco & Bildsten, 2005).”