Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae

By D. Maoz, F. Mannucci, G. Nelemans. 2013

725 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are important distance indicators, element factories, cosmic-ray accelerators, kinetic-energy sources in galaxy evolution, and end points of stellar binary evolution. It has long been clear that a SN Ia must be the runaway thermonuclear explosion of a degenerate carbon-oxygen stellar core, most likely a white dwarf (WD). However, the specific progenitor systems of SNe Ia, and the processes that lead to their ignition, have not been identified. Two broad classes of progenitor binary systems have long been considered: single-degenerate (SD), in which a WD gains mass from a nondegenerate star; and double-degenerate (DD), involving the merger of two WDs. New theoretical work has enriched these possibilities with some interesting updates and variants. We review the significant recent observational progress in addressing the progenitor problem. We consider clues that have emerged from the observed properties of the various proposed progenitor populations, from studies of SN Ia sites—...

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6f3d571c6a266df8c8e8069a33e04eb421801d73

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Citations in the corpus

Neutron Star Mergers Might Not Be the Only Source of r-process Elements in the Milky Way (2018, methodology): “Different approaches for deriving observationally the DTD 4 https://data.sdss.org/sas/dr10/boss/papers/supernova/ function of SNe Ia are described in Maoz et al. (2014).”
Delay-time distribution of core-collapse supernovae with late events resulting from binary interaction (2017, background): “…focus on the delay time of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), which are thought to arise from the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf (e.g., Totani et al. 2008; Maoz et al. 2010, 2011, 2012; Maoz & Badenes 2010; Graur & Maoz 2013; Graur et al. 2014); we refer to Maoz et al. (2014) for a review.”
The Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Effect and Its Applications (2016, background): “…formation and the type Ia supernova explosion, usually called the delay-time distribution, that seems to favor the double degenerate scenario (e.g., Maoz et al. 2014) or in the lack of hydrogen lines that are expected in the single degenerated (white dwarf with a stellar companion) scenario (e.g.,…”
Origin of the heaviest elements: The rapid neutron-capture process (2019, background): “g/Fe] = 0:4 (see e.g.Woosley et al.,2002;Woosley and Heger,2007; Limongi and Chie,2018) before type Ia supernovae set in. The properties of the latter have been reviewed in Hillebrandt et al. (2013);Maoz et al. (2014);Goldstein and Kasen(2018);Livio and Mazzali(2018) as well as their nucleosynthesis”
Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Detonations Revisited (2017, background): “The nature of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) progenitors remains one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics (for recent reviews, see Hillebrandt et al. 2013 and Maoz et al. 2014).”
Three Hypervelocity White Dwarfs in Gaia DR2: Evidence for Dynamically Driven Double-degenerate Double-detonation Type Ia Supernovae (2018, background): “There is general agreement that the exploding star is a carbon/oxygen white dwarf (C/O WD) and that a companion star triggers runaway nuclear fusion in the WD, leading to a SN Ia powered by the decay of radioactive 56Ni (Pankey 1962; Colgate & McKee 1969; Maoz et al. 2014).”