Type Ia Supernovae: Progenitors and Evolution with Redshift

Abstract

Relatively uniform light curves and spectral evolution of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have led to the use of SNe Ia as a ``standard candle'' to determine cosmological parameters. Whether a statistically significant value of the cosmological constant can be obtained depends on whether the peak luminosities of SNe Ia are sufficiently free from the effects of cosmic and galactic evolutions. Here we first review the single degenerate scenario for the Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf (WD) models of SNe Ia. We identify the progenitor's evolution and population with two channels: (1) the WD+RG (red-giant) and (2) the WD+MS (near main-sequence He-rich star) channels. In these channels, the strong wind from accreting WDs plays a key role, which yields important age and metallicity effects on the evolution. We then address the questions whether the nature of SNe Ia depends systematically on environmental properties such as metallicity and age of the progenitor system and whether significant evolutionary effects exist. We suggest that the variation of the carbon mass fraction $X$(C) in the C+O WD (or the variation of the initial WD mass) causes the diversity of the brightness of SNe Ia. This model can explain the observed dependences of SNe Ia brightness on the galaxy types and the distance from the galactic center. Finally, applying the metallicity effect on the evolution of SN Ia progenitors, we make a prediction of the cosmic supernova rate history as a composite of the supernova rates in different types of galaxies.

To be published in the Proceedings of the 10th Annual October Astrophysics Conference in Maryland (11 - 13 October 1999) "Cosmic Explosions!", ed. S.S. Holt and W.W. Zhang (American Institute of Physics)

Cited by in corpus (10)

• A Single Degenerate Progenitor Model for Type Ia Supernovae Highly Exceeding the Chandrasekhar Mass Limit
• Single Degenerate Models for Type Ia Supernovae Progenitor's Evolution and Nucleosythesis Yields
• Supersoft X-ray Phase of Single Degenerate Type Ia Supernova Progenitors in Early Type Galaxies
• Final Fates of Rotating White Dwarfs and Their Companions in the Single Degenerate Model of Type Ia Supernovae
• Hydrodynamic Studies of the Evolution of Recurrent, Symbiotic, and Dwarf Novae: The White Dwarf Components are Growing in Mass
• Final Evolution and Delayed Explosions of Spinning White Dwarfs in Single Degenerate Models for Type Ia Supernovae
• Type Ia Supernovae: Colors, Rates, and Progenitors
• Super-Chandrasekhar-Mass Light Curve Models for the Highly Luminous Type Ia Supernova 2009dc
• On Identifying the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae
• Quark-Novae in Neutron Star-White-Dwarf Binaries: A model for luminous (spin-down powered) sub-Chandrasekhar-mass Type Ia Supernovae ?