A hot subdwarf-white dwarf super-Chandrasekhar candidate supernova Ia progenitor

Abstract

Supernova Ia are bright explosive events that can be used to estimate cosmological distances, allowing us to study the expansion of the Universe. They are understood to result from a thermonuclear detonation in a white dwarf that formed from the exhausted core of a star more massive than the Sun. However, the possible progenitor channels leading to an explosion are a long-standing debate, limiting the precision and accuracy of supernova Ia as distance indicators. Here we present HD265435, a binary system with an orbital period of less than a hundred minutes, consisting of a white dwarf and a hot subdwarf -- a stripped core-helium burning star. The total mass of the system is 1.65+/-0.25 solar-masses, exceeding the Chandrasekhar limit (the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf). The system will merge due to gravitational wave emission in 70 million years, likely triggering a supernova Ia event. We use this detection to place constraints on the contribution of hot subdwarf-white dwarf binaries to supernova Ia progenitors.

arXiv commentPreprint of an article published in Nature Astronomy. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01413-0

References in corpus (85)

• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
• Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Giant Planets, Oscillations, Rotation, and Massive Stars
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Binaries, Pulsations, and Explosions
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics Beyond LambdaCDM
• Local Kinematics and the Local Standard of Rest
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Pulsating Variable Stars, Rotation, Convective Boundaries, and Energy Conservation
• galpy: A Python Library for Galactic Dynamics
• The High-Z Supernova Search: Measuring Cosmic Deceleration and Global Cur vature of the Universe Using Type Ia Supernovae
• The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: I. Stellar Number Density Distribution
• Gaia Early Data Release 3: Parallax bias versus magnitude, colour, and position
• Observational clues to the progenitors of Type-Ia supernovae
• The Origin of Subdwarf B Star (I): the Formation Channels
• Gaia Data Release 2: Photometric content and validation
• Gravitational-wave sensitivity curves
• The trouble with $H_0$
• The origin of sdB stars (II)
• The construction and use of LISA sensitivity curves
• Nearby Supernova Rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. III. The Rate-Size Relation, and the Rates as a Function of Galaxy Hubble Type and Colour
• RVSAO 2.0: Digital Redshifts and Radial Velocities
• Gaia Data Release 2: first stellar parameters from Apsis
• A direct dynamical measurement of the Milky Way's disk surface density profile, disk scale length, and dark matter profile at 4 kpc < R < 9 kpc
• Normal Type Ia supernovae from violent mergers of white dwarf binaries
• The single degenerate channel for the progenitors of type Ia supernovae
• Sub-luminous type Ia supernovae from the mergers of equal-mass white dwarfs with M~0.9 M_sun
• Type Iax Supernovae: A New Class of Stellar Explosion
• Hot subluminous stars
• Spectroscopic Analysis of DA White Dwarfs: Stark Broadening of Hydrogen Lines Including Non-Ideal Effects
• SN 2002cx: The Most Peculiar Known Type Ia Supernova
• Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass Models For Type Ia Supernovae
• Type-Ia supernova rates and the progenitor problem, a review
• Galactic Rotation and Solar Motion from Stellar Kinematics
• Double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar supernovae: synthetic observables for minimum helium shell mass models
• An Analysis of the Shapes of Interstellar Extinction Curves. VII. Milky Way Spectrophotometric Optical-through-Ultraviolet Extinction and Its R-Dependence
• The Potential of Asteroseismology for Hot, Subdwarf B Stars: A New Class of Pulsating Stars?
• Constraining Type Ia supernova models: SN 2011fe as a test case
• Violent mergers of nearly equal-mass white dwarf as progenitors of subluminous Type Ia supernovae
• KPD1930+2752 - a candidate Type Ia supernova progenitor
• LISA verification binaries with updated distances from Gaia Data Release 2
• The Ignition of Carbon Detonations via Converging Shock Waves in White Dwarfs
• Physical properties of IP Pegasi: an eclipsing dwarf nova with an unusually cool white dwarf
• 3D kinematics of white dwarfs from the SPY project II
• The population of hot subdwarf stars studied with Gaia II. The Gaia DR2 catalogue of hot subluminous stars
• Hydrogen and helium line formation in OB dwarfs and giants. A hybrid non-LTE approach
• A progenitor binary and an ejected mass donor remnant of faint type Ia supernovae
• 3D kinematics of white dwarfs from the SPY project
• The ESO supernovae type Ia progenitor survey (SPY)
• Testing common classical LTE and NLTE model atmosphere and line-formation codes for quantitative spectroscopy of early-type stars
• Producing type Iax supernovae from a specific class of helium-ignited WD explosions?
• The Masses and Accretion Rates of White Dwarfs in Classical and Recurrent Novae
• Formation and evolution of hybrid He-CO white dwarfs and their properties
• The shortest period sdB plus white dwarf binary CD-30 11223 (GALEX J1411-3053)
• SNe Ia from double detonations: Impact of core-shell mixing on the carbon ignition mechanism
• The double-degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar nucleus of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428
• Mass-loss and diffusion in subdwarf B stars and hot white dwarfs: do weak winds exist?
• New full evolutionary sequences of H and He atmosphere massive white dwarf stars using MESA
• Thermonuclear explosion of a massive hybrid HeCO white-dwarf triggered by a He-detonation on a companion
• Using electromagnetic observations to aid gravitational-wave parameter estimation of compact binaries observed with LISA
• Internal rotation of subdwarf B stars: limiting cases and asteroseismological consequences
• The critical mass ratio of double white dwarf binaries for violent merger-induced Type Ia supernova explosions
• Where are the double-degenerate progenitors of type Ia supernovae?
• A new method for an objective, ${\chi }^2$-based spectroscopic analysis of early-type stars
• The double-degenerate model for the progenitors of type Ia supernovae
• Gravity and limb-darkening coefficients for compact stars: DA, DB, and DBA eclipsing white dwarfs
• A new class of Roche lobe-filling hot subdwarf binaries
• New hot subdwarf stars identified in Gaia DR2 with LAMOST DR5 spectra
• Evolutionary modelling of subdwarf B stars using MESA with the predictive mixing and convective premixing schemes
• A quantitative spectral analysis of 14 hypervelocity stars from the MMT survey
• Models for the evolution of close binaries with He-Star and WD components towards Type Ia supernova explosions
• Velocity limits in the thermonuclear supernova ejection scenario for hypervelocity stars and the origin of US 708
• Mode identification in three pulsating hot subdwarfs observed with TESS satellite
• An in-depth reanalysis of the alleged type Ia supernova progenitor Henize 2-428
• Birthrates and delay times of Type Ia supernovae
• High-degree gravity modes in the single sdB star HD4539
• Hot subdwarf wind models with accurate abundances I. Hydrogen dominated stars HD 49798 and BD+18${}^{\circ }$2647
• EPIC 216747137: a new HW Vir eclipsing binary with a massive sdOB primary and a low-mass M-dwarf companion

Cited by in corpus (36)

• Type Ia Supernova Explosions in Binary Systems: A Review
• On the fate of the secondary white dwarf in double-degenerate double-detonation Type Ia supernovae
• The population of hot subdwarf stars studied with Gaia -- IV. Catalogues of hot subluminous stars based on Gaia EDR3
• Hot subdwarfs in close binaries observed from space I: orbital, atmospheric, and absolute parameters and the nature of their companions
• Identifying LISA verification binaries among the Galactic population of double white dwarfs
• Discovery of a double detonation thermonuclear supernova progenitor
• Phases of Mass Transfer from Hot Subdwarfs to White Dwarf Companions and Their Photometric Properties
• Radial velocity variability and evolution of hot subdwarf stars
• A Systematic Search for Short-period Close White Dwarf Binary Candidates Based on Gaia EDR3 Catalog and Zwicky Transient Facility Data
• Masses of White Dwarf Binary Companions to Type Ia Supernovae Measured from Runaway Velocities
• Massive white dwarfs in $f(R,L_m)$ gravity
• New Variable Hot Subdwarf Stars Identified from Anomalous Gaia Flux Errors, Observed by TESS, and Classified via Fourier Diagnostics
• Hot subdwarfs in close binaries observed from space II: Analysis of the light curves
• Tidally Tilted Pulsations in HD 265435, a subdwarf B Star with a Close White Dwarf Companion
• An 18.9-minute Blue Large-Amplitude Pulsator Crossing the 'Hertzsprung Gap' of Hot Subdwarfs
• A Roche Lobe-filling hot Subdwarf and White Dwarf Binary: possible detection of an ejected common envelope
• Large-scale ordered magnetic fields generated in mergers of helium white dwarfs
• A 99-minute Double-lined White Dwarf Binary from SDSS-V
• A seven-Earth-radius helium-burning star inside a 20.5-min detached binary
• Minute-Cadence Observations of the LAMOST Fields with the TMTS: II. Catalogues of Short-Period Variable Stars from the First Two-Year Surveys
• Properties and applications of a predicted population of runaway He-sdO/B stars ejected from single degenerate He-donor SNe
• A spectroscopic and kinematic survey of fast hot subdwarfs
• He-star donor AM CVn stars and their progenitors as LISA sources
• Compact Objects in close orbits as Gravitational Wave Sources: Formation Scenarios and Properties
• The first massive compact companion in a wide orbit around a hot subdwarf star
• A super-Chandrasekhar mass type Ia supernova progenitor at 49 pc set to detonate in 23 Gyr
• The Formation of Electron-capture Supernovae: A Review
• Evolution of binaries containing a hot subdwarf and a white dwarf to double white dwarfs, and double detonation supernovae with hypervelocity runaway stars
• Anomalous Orbital Characteristics of the AQ Col (EC 05217-3914) System
• Limiting the accretion disk light in two mass transferring hot subdwarf binaries
• Detection of hot subdwarf binaries and sdB stars using machine learning methods and a large sample of Gaia XP spectra
• Discovery of periodic variables in the hot subdwarf catalogue through a systematic search in Zwicky Transient Facility data
• X-ray observation of the Roche-lobe filling white dwarf plus hot subdwarf system ZTF J213056.71+442046.5
• Accreting White Dwarfs: Effect of WD Composition on Helium Ignition During Slow Accretion
• Observing Orbital Decay in the Ultracompact Hot Subdwarf Binary System ZTFJ213056.71+442046.5
• Discerning internal conditions of pulsating hot subdwarf B stars. Modelling multiple trapped modes in KIC 10001893