Possible white dwarf progenitors of type Ia supernovae

Abstract

We examine catalogs of white dwarfs (WDs) and find that there are sufficient number of massive WDs, M_WD > 1.35Mo, that might potentially explode as type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the frame of the core degenerate scenario. In the core degenerate scenario a WD merges with the carbon-oxygen core of a giant star, and they form a massive WD that might explode with a time delay of years to billions of years. If the core degenerate scenario accounts for all SNe Ia, then we calculate that about 0.2 per cent of the present WDs in the Galaxy are massive. Furthermore, we find from the catalogs that the fraction of massive WDs relative to all WDs is about 1-3 per cent, with large uncertainties. Namely, five to ten times the required number. If there are many SNe Ia that result from lower mass WDs, M_WD < 1.3Mo, for which another scenario is responsible for, and the core degenerate scenario accounts only for the SNe Ia that explode as massive WDs, then the ratio of observed massive WDs to required is larger even. Our finding leaves the core degenerate scenario as a viable and promising SN Ia scenario.

Accepted to MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Supernovae Ia in 2019 (review): a rising demand for spherical explosions
• Double-Degenerate Carbon-Oxygen and Oxygen-Neon White Dwarf Mergers: A New Mechanism for Faint and Rapid Type Ia Supernovae
• Oxygen-neon rich merger during common envelope evolution
• Common envelope to explosion delay time distribution (CEEDTD) of type Ia supernovae
• The landscape of binary core-collapse supernova progenitors and the late emergence of Wolf-Rayet winds
• The radial distribution of supernovae compared to star formation tracers
• Type Ia Supernovae and their Explosive Nucleosynthesis: Constraints on Progenitors