Sub-Chandrasekhar progenitors favoured for type Ia supernovae: Evidence from late-time spectroscopy

Abstract

A non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium (NLTE) level population model of the first and second ionisation stages of iron, nickel and cobalt is used to fit a sample of XShooter optical + near-infrared (NIR) spectra of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). From the ratio of the NIR lines to the optical lines limits can be placed on the temperature and density of the emission region. We find a similar evolution of these parameters across our sample. Using the evolution of the Fe II 12570$\mathring{A}$to 7155$\mathring{A}$line as a prior in fits of spectra covering only the optical wavelengths we show that the 7200$\mathring{A}$feature is fully explained by [Fe II] and [Ni II] alone. This approach allows us to determine the abundance of Ni II/Fe II for a large sample of 130 optical spectra of 58 SNe Ia with uncertainties small enough to distinguish between Chandrasekhar mass (M${}_{\text{Ch}}$) and sub-Chandrasekhar mass (sub-M${}_{\text{Ch}}$) explosion models. We conclude that the majority (85$\%$) of normal SNe Ia have a Ni/Fe abundance that is in agreement with predictions of sub-M${}_{\text{Ch}}$ explosion simulations of $\sim Z_{\odot }$ progenitors. Only a small fraction (11$\%$) of objects in the sample have a Ni/Fe abundance in agreement with M${}_{\text{Ch}}$ explosion models.

19 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (21)

• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• Double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar supernovae: can minimum helium shell masses detonate the core?
• A Common Explosion Mechanism for Type Ia Supernovae
• Circumstellar Emission from Type Ib and Ic Supernovae
• Optical and Near-Infrared Observations of the Highly Reddened, Rapidly Expanding Type Ia Supernova 2006X in M100
• SN 2003du: 480 days in the Life of a Normal Type Ia Supernova
• Anomalous extinction behaviour towards the Type Ia SN 2003cg
• ESC and KAIT Observations of the Transitional Type Ia SN 2004eo
• Efficient Bayesian inference for multimodal problems in cosmology
• A Chandrasekhar Mass Progenitor for the Type Ia Supernova Remnant 3C 397 from The Enhanced Abundances of Nickel and Manganese
• Nebular spectra and abundance tomography of the type Ia supernova SN 2011fe: a normal SN Ia with a stable Fe core
• Optical and IR observations of SN 2002dj: some possible common properties of fast expanding SNe Ia
• The Reduction of the Electron Abundance during the Pre-explosion Simmering in White Dwarf Supernovae
• Nebular-Phase Spectra of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae
• H-$\alpha$ emission in the nebular spectrum of the Type Ia supernova ASASSN-18tb
• Early observations of the nearby type Ia supernova SN 2015F
• Convection during the Late Stages of Simmering in Type Ia Supernovae
• Twins for life? A comparative analysis of the Type Ia supernovae 2011fe and 2011by
• Spectroscopy of the Type Ia supernova 2011fe past 1000 days
• The detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf at the origin of the low-luminosity Type Ia supernova 1999by
• Extremely late photometry of SN~2011fe

Cited by in corpus (35)

• A rapid transition of $G_{\mathrm{eff}}$ at $z_t\simeq 0.01$ as a solution of the Hubble and growth tensions
• Late-transition vs smooth $H(z)$ deformation models for the resolution of the Hubble crisis
• Monte Carlo radiative transfer for the nebular phase of Type Ia supernovae
• The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna: Mission Studies and Science Case
• A JWST Near- and Mid-Infrared Nebular Spectrum of the Type Ia Supernova 2021aefx
• Evidence for sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia supernovae from the last major merger
• JWST Low-Resolution MIRI Spectral Observations of SN~2021aefx: High-density Burning in a Type Ia Supernova
• The white dwarf binary pathways survey V. The Gaia white dwarf plus AFGK binary sample and the identification of 23 close binaries
• Measuring an off-Center Detonation through Infrared Line Profiles: The peculiar Type Ia Supernova SN~2020qxp/ASASSN-20jq
• Can Helium-detonation Model Explain the Observed Diversity of Type Ia Supernovae?
• Ground-based and JWST Observations of SN 2022pul: II. Evidence from Nebular Spectroscopy for a Violent Merger in a Peculiar Type-Ia Supernova
• Near-Chandrasekhar-Mass Type Ia Supernovae from the Double-Degenerate Channel
• The origin and evolution of the normal Type Ia SN 2018aoz with infant-phase reddening and excess emission
• The Whisper of a Whimper of a Bang: 2400 Days of the Type Ia SN 2011fe Reveals the Decay of ${}^{55}$Fe
• Modelling the ionisation state of Type Ia supernovae in the nebular-phase
• The intermediate nebular phase of SN 2014J: onset of clumping as the source of recombination
• Delayed Detonation Thermonuclear Supernovae With An Extended Dark Matter Component
• Nebular-Phase Spectra of Type Ia Supernovae from the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Supernova Project
• Pre-explosive accretion and simmering phases of Type Ia Supernovae
• Type Ia Supernova Nucleosynthesis: Metallicity-Dependent Yields
• The Late-Time Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae: Confronting Models with Observations
• Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs are the progenitors of a small fraction of Type Ia supernovae according to nucleosythesis constraints
• SN 2015bq: A Luminous Type Ia Supernova with Early Flux Excess
• A study of Si II and S II features in spectra of Type Ia supernova
• Near-infrared and Optical Nebular-phase Spectra of Type Ia Supernovae SN 2013aa and SN 2017cbv in NGC 5643
• Photometric study of the late-time near-infrared plateau in Type Ia supernovae
• SN 2022joj: A Peculiar Type Ia Supernova Possibly Driven by an Asymmetric Helium-shell Double Detonation
• A spectroscopic quadruple as a possible progenitor of sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia supernovae
• The Search for Stable Nickel: Investigating the Origins of Type Ia Supernovae with Late-time NIR Spectroscopy from the Carnegie Supernova Project-II
• $\texttt{HostSub_GP}$: Precise Galaxy Background Subtraction in Transient Long-slit Spectroscopy with Gaussian Processes
• Deciphering the explosion mechanism of Type Ia SNe using their remnants II: a deep dive into double detonations with SNR 0509-67.5
• Plasma Instabilities Dominate Radioactive Transients Magnetic Fields: The self-confinement of leptons in Type Ia and Core-Collapse Supernovae, and Kilonovae
• Puzzling High-Velocity Calcium Absorption Features Of Type Ia Supernovae
• Ultra low-mass and small-radius white dwarfs made of heavy elements
• Compact dwarfs made of light-quark nuggets