Confronting double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar models with the low-luminosity suppression of Type Ia supernovae

Abstract

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are likely the thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen (CO) white-dwarf (WD) stars, but their progenitor systems remain elusive. Recently, Sharon & Kushnir (2022) used The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey to construct a synthesized ${}^{56}$Ni mass, $M_{\text{Ni56}}$, distribution of SNe Ia. They found that the rate of low-luminosity ($M_{\text{Ni56}}\approx 0.15M_{\odot }$) SNe Ia is lower by a factor of $\sim 10$ than the more common $M_{\text{Ni56}}\approx 0.7M_{\odot }$ events. We here show that in order for the double-detonation model (DDM, in which a propagating thermonuclear detonation wave, TNDW, within a thin helium shell surrounding a sub-Chandrasekhar mass CO core triggers a TNDW within the core) to explain this low-luminosity suppression, the probability of a low-mass ($\approx 0.85M_{\odot }$) WD explosion should be $\sim 100$-fold lower than that of a high-mass ($\approx 1.05M_{\odot }$) WD. One possible explanation is that the ignition of low-mass CO cores is somehow suppressed. We use accurate one-dimensional numerical simulations to show that if a TNDW is able to propagate within the helium shell, then the ignition within the CO core is guaranteed (resolved here for the first time in a full-star simulation), even for $0.7M_{\odot }$ WDs, providing no natural explanation for the low-luminosity suppression. DDM could explain the low-luminosity suppression if the mass distribution of primary WDs in close binaries is dramatically different from the field distribution; if the Helium shell ignition probability is suppressed for low-mass WDs; or if multidimensional perturbations significantly change our results.

7 pages, 3 figures. Revised following referee report

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