Is the metallicity of their hosts a good measure of the metallicity of Type Ia supernovae?

Abstract

The efficient use of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) for cosmological studies requires knowledge of any parameter that can affect their luminosity in either systematic or statistical ways. Observational samples of SNIa commonly use the metallicity of the host galaxy, Z_host, as an estimator of the supernova progenitor metallicity, Z_Ia, that is one of the primary factors affecting SNIa magnitude. Here, we present a theoretical study of the relationship between Z_Ia and Z_host. We follow the chemical evolution of homogeneous galaxy models together with the evolution of the supernova rates in order to evaluate the metallicity distribution function, MDF(Delta Z), i.e. the probability that the logarithm of the metallicity of a SNIa exploding now differs in less than Delta Z from that of its host. We analyse several model galaxies aimed to represent from active to passive galaxies, including dwarf galaxies prone to experience supernova driven outflows. We analyse the sensitivity of the MDF to uncertain ingredients: IMF, star-formation law, stellar lifetime, stellar yields, and SNIa delay-time distribution. There is a remarkable degree of agreement between the mean Z_Ia in a galaxy and its Z_host when they both are measured as the CNO abundance, especially if the DTD peaks at small time delays, while the average Fe abundance of host and SNIa may differ up to 0.4-0.6 dex in passive galaxies. The dispersion of Z_Ia in active galaxy models is quite small, meaning that Z_host is a quite good estimator of the supernova metallicity. Passive galaxies present a larger dispersion, which is more pronounced in low mass galaxies. We discuss the use of different metallicity indicators: Fe vs. O, and gas-phase metallicity vs. stellar metallicity. The results of the application of our formalism to a galactic catalogue (VESPA) are roughly consistent with our theoretical estimates. (abridged)

15 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, accepted for MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Type-Ia supernova rates and the progenitor problem, a review
• Host Galaxy Properties and Hubble Residuals of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory
• The Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae Discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory
• Spectroscopic Properties of Star-Forming Host Galaxies and Type Ia Supernova Hubble Residuals in a Nearly Unbiased Sample
• The Effect of Environment on Type Ia Supernovae in the Dark Energy Survey Three-Year Cosmological Sample
• Concerning Colour: The Effect of Environment on Type Ia Supernova Colour in the Dark Energy Survey
• Using the local gas-phase oxygen abundances to explore a metallicity-dependence in SNe Ia luminosities
• Type Ia Supernova host galaxies as seen with IFU spectroscopy
• A Photometric Analysis of the Relationship Between Type Ia Supernova UV Flux and Host Galaxy Metallicity
• On Silicon Group Elements Ejected by Supernovae Type Ia
• CIGaRS I: Combined simulation-based inference from type Ia supernovae and host photometry