Tracing back the birth environments of Type Ia supernova progenitor stars: A pilot study based on 44 early-type host galaxies

Abstract

The environmental dependence of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) luminosities is well-established, and efforts are being made to find its origin. Previous studies typically use the currently-observed status of the host galaxy. However, given the delay time between the birth of the progenitor star and the SN Ia explosion, the currently-observed status may differ from the birth environments of the SN Ia progenitor star. In this paper, employing the chemical evolution and accurately determined stellar population properties of 44 early-type host galaxies, we, for the first time, estimate the SN Ia progenitor star birth environment, specifically $[Fe/H{]}_{Birth}$ and $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$. We show that $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$ has a $30.4_{-10.1}^{+10.6}\%$ wider range than $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Current}$, while the range of $[Fe/H{]}_{Birth}$ is not statistically different ($17.9_{-27.1}^{+26.0}\%$) to that of $[Fe/H{]}_{Current}$. The birth and current environments of [Fe/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe] are sample from different populations (p-values of the KS test < 0.01). We find that light-curve fit parameters are insensitive to $[Fe/H{]}_{Birth}$ ($<0.9\sigma$ for the non-zero slope), while a linear trend is observed with HRs at the 2.4$\sigma$ significance level. With $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$, no linear trends ($<1.1\sigma$) are observed. Interestingly, we find that $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$ clearly splits the SN Ia sample into two groups: SN Ia exploded in $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$-rich or $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$-poor environments. SNe Ia exploded in different $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$ groups have different weighted-means of light-curve shape parameters: $0.81\pm 0.33$ ($2.5\sigma$). They are thought to be drawn from different populations (p-value = 0.01). Regarding SN Ia colour and HRs, there is no difference in the weighted-means ($<1.0\sigma$) and distributions (p-value > 0.27) of each $[\alpha /Fe{]}_{Birth}$ group.

9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, and 2 appendix figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS