Progenitors of Supernovae Type Ia

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origins of Type Ia supernovae by modeling binary star evolution to understand their rates and delay times, addressing the lack of a comprehensive theoretical explanation.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed binary population synthesis approach to evaluate the contributions of different progenitor channels to SNeIa rates and delay times.

Findings

Predicted SNeIa rates depend on binary evolution assumptions.

Delay time distributions vary with different progenitor scenarios.

Constraints on binary processes like mass retention and common envelope evolution.

Abstract

Despite the significance of Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) in many fields in astrophysics, SNeIa lack a theoretical explanation. The standard scenarios involve thermonuclear explosions of carbon/oxygen white dwarfs approaching the Chandrasekhar mass; either by accretion from a companion or by a merger of two white dwarfs. We investigate the contribution from both channels to the SNIa rate with the binary population synthesis (BPS) code SeBa in order to constrain binary processes such as the mass retention efficiency of WD accretion and common envelope evolution. We determine the theoretical rates and delay time distribution of SNIa progenitors and in particular study how assumptions affect the predicted rates.