The influence of chemical composition on models of Type Ia supernovae

TL;DR

This paper reviews how the chemical composition of white dwarf progenitors influences Type Ia supernova explosions, aiming to improve understanding of their brightness variations for cosmological measurements.

Contribution

It provides an overview of progenitor systems and presents new research on how white dwarf composition systematically affects supernova explosion outcomes.

Findings

White dwarf composition impacts explosion brightness

Systematic effects of composition on supernova outcomes

Research enhances understanding of intrinsic brightness scatter

Abstract

Type Ia supernovae are bright stellar explosions distinguished by standardizable light curves that allow for their use as distance indicators for cosmological studies. Despite the highly successful use of these events in this capacity, many fundamental questions remain. Contemporary research investigates how properties of the progenitor system that follow from the host galaxy such as composition and age influence the brightness of an event with the goal of better understanding and assessing the intrinsic scatter in the brightness. We provide an overview of these supernovae and proposed progenitor systems, all of which involve one or more compact stars known as white dwarfs. We describe contemporary research investigating how the composition and structure of the progenitor white dwarf systematically influences the explosion outcome assuming the progenitor is a single white dwarf that has gained mass from a companion. We present results illustrating some of these systematic effects from our research.