Progenitors of type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play an important role in astrophysics and are crucial for the studies of stellar evolution, galaxy evolution and cosmology. They are generally thought to be thermonuclear explosions of accreting carbon–oxygen white dwarfs (CO WDs) in close binaries, however, the nature of the mass donor star is still unclear. In this article, we review various progenitor models proposed in the past years and summarize many observational results that can be used to put constraints on the nature of their progenitors. We also discuss the origin of SN Ia diversity and the impacts of SN Ia progenitors on some fields. The currently favourable progenitor model is the single-degenerate (SD) model, in which the WD accretes material from a non-degenerate companion star. This model may explain the similarities of most SNe Ia. It has long been argued that the double-degenerate (DD) model, which involves the merger of two CO WDs, may lead to an accretion-induced collapse rather than a thermonuclear explosion. However, recent observations of a few SNe Ia seem to support the DD model, and this model can produce normal SN Ia explosion under certain conditions. Additionally, the sub-luminous SNe Ia may be explained by the sub-Chandrasekhar mass model. At present, it seems likely that more than one progenitor model, including some variants of the SD and DD models, may be required to explain the observed diversity of SNe Ia.     

WD+RG systems as the progenitors of type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia)play an important role in the study of cosmic evolution,especially in cosmology.There are several progenitor models for SNe Ia proposed in the past years.By considering the effect of accretion disk instability on the evolution of white dwarf(WD)binaries,we performed detailed binary evolution calculations for the WD+red-giant(RG)channel of SNe Ia,in which a carbon-oxygen WD accretes material from a RG star to increase its mass to the Chandrasekhar mass limit.According to these calcu...     

Accreting He-rich material onto carbon-oxygen white dwarfs until explosive carbon ignition

Type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia) play an important role in studies of cosmology and galactic chemical evolution.They are believed to be thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs(CO WDs)when their masses approach the Chandrasekar(Ch) mass limit.However,it is still not completely understood how a CO WD increases its mass to the Ch-mass limit in the classical single-degenerate(SD) model.In this paper,we studied the mass accretion process in the SD model to examine whether the WD can explode as an SN Ia.Employing the stellar evolution code called modules for experiments in stellar astrophysics(MESA),we simulated the He accretion process onto CO WDs.We found that the WD can increase its mass to the Ch-mass limit through the SD model and explosive carbon ignition finally occurs in its center,which will lead to an SN Ia explosion.Our results imply that SNe Ia can be produced from the SD model through steady helium accretion.Moreover,this work can provide initial input parameters for explosion models of SNe Ia.     

The C/O ratio of He-accreting carbon-oxygen white dwarfs and type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia) are thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs(CO WDs), and are believed to be excellent cosmological distance indicators due to their high luminosity and remarkable uniformity. However, there exists a diversity among SNe Ia, and a poor understanding of the diversity hampers the improvement of the accuracy of cosmological distance measurements. The variations of the ratios of carbon to oxygen(C/O) of WDs at explosion are suggested to contribute to the diversity. In the canonical model of SNe Ia, a CO WD accretes matter from its companion and increases its mass till the Chandrasekhar mass limit when the WD explodes. In this work, we studied the C/O ratio for accreting CO WDs. Employing the stellar evolution code MESA, we simulated the accretion of He-rich material onto CO WDs with different initial WD masses and different mass accretion rates. We found that the C/O ratio varies for different cases. The C/O ratio of He-accreting CO WDs at explosion increases with a decreasing initial WD mass or a decreasing accretion rate. The various C/O ratios may, therefore, contribute to the diversity of SNe Ia.     

Binary population synthesis study of the supersoft X-ray phase of single degenerate type Ia supernova progenitors

In the single degenerate(SD) scenario for type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia) ,a mass-accreting white dwarf is expected to experience a supersoft X-ray source(SSS) phase. However,some recent observations showed that the expected number of massaccreting WDs is much lower than that predicted from theory,regardless of whether they are in spiral or elliptical galaxies. In this paper,we performed a binary population synthesis study on the relative duration of the SSS phase to their whole massincreasing phase of WDs leadi...     

The formation of neutron star systems through accretion-induced collapse in white-dwarf binaries

The accretion-induced collapse(AIC) scenario was proposed 40 years ago as an evolutionary end state of oxygen-neon white dwarfs(ONe WDs), linking them to the formation of neutron star(NS) systems.However, there has been no direct detection of any AIC event so far, even though there exists a lot of indirect observational evidence. Meanwhile, the evolutionary pathways resulting in NS formation through AIC are still not thoroughly investigated. In this article, we review recent studies on the two classic progenitor models of AIC events, i.e., the single-degenerate model(including the ONe WD+MS/RG/He star channels and the CO WD+He star channel) and the double-degenerate model(including the double CO WD channel,the double ONe WD channel and the ONe WD+CO WD channel). Recent progress on these progenitor models is reviewed, including the evolutionary scenarios leading to AIC events, the initial parameter space for producing AIC events and the related objects(e.g., the pre-AIC systems and the post-AIC systems).For the single-degenerate model, the pre-AIC systems(i.e., the progenitor systems of AIC events) could potentially be identified as supersoft X-ray sources, symbiotics and cataclysmic variables(such as classical novae, recurrent novae, Ne novae and He novae) in the observations, whereas the post-AIC systems(i.e.,NS systems) could potentially be identified as low-/intermediate-mass X-ray binaries, and the resulting low-/intermediate-mass binary pulsars, most notably millisecond pulsars. For the double-degenerate model,the pre-AIC systems are close double WDs with short orbital periods, whereas the post-AIC systems are single isolated NSs that may correspond to a specific kind of NS with peculiar properties. We also review the predicted rates of AIC events, the mass distribution of NSs produced via AIC and the gravitational wave(GW) signals from double WDs that are potential GW sources in the Galaxy in the context of future spacebased GW detectors, such as LISA, TianQin, Taiji, etc. Recent theoretical and observational constraints on the detection of AIC events are summarized. In order to confirm the existence of the AIC process, and resolve this long-term issue presented by current stellar evolution theories, more numerical simulations and observational identifications are required.     

The cooling time of white dwarfs produced from type Iasupernovae

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play a key role in measuring cosmological pa- rameters, in which the Phillips relation is adopted. However, the origin of the relation is still unclear. Several parameters are suggested, e.g. the relative content of carbon to oxygen (C/O) and the central density of the white dwarf (WD) at ignition. These parameters are mainly determined by the WD's initial mass and its cooling time, respectively. Using the progenitor model developed by Meng Yang, we present the distributions of the initial WD mass and the cooling time. We do not find any correlation between these parameters. However, we notice that as the range of the WD's mass decreases, its average value increases with the cooling time. These results could provide a constraint when simulating the SN Ia explosion, i.e. the WDs with a high C/O ratio usually have a lower central density at ignition, while those having the highest central density at ignition generally have a lower C/O ratio. The cooling time is mainly determined by the evolutionary age of secondaries, and the scatter of the cooling time decreases with the evolutionary age. Our results may indicate that WDs with a long cooling time have more uniform properties than those with a short cooling time, which may be helpful to explain why SNe Ia in elliptical galaxies have a more uniform maximum luminosity than those in spiral galaxies.     

The cooling time of white dwarfs produced from type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia)play a key role in measuring cosmological parameters,in which the Phillips relation is adopted.However,the origin of the relation is still unclear.Several parameters are suggested,e.g.the relative content of carbon to oxygen(C/O)and the central density of the white dwarf(WD)at ignition.These parameters are mainly determined by the WD's initial mass and its cooling time,respectively.Using the progenitor model developed by Meng & Yang,we present the distributions of the initial WD mass and the cooling time.We do not find any correlation between these parameters.However,we notice that as the range of the WD's mass decreases,its average value increases with the cooling time.These results could provide a constraint when simulating the SN Ia explosion,i.e.the WDs with a high C/O ratio usually have a lower central density at ignition,while those having the highest central density at ignition generally have a lower C/O ratio.The cooling time is mainly determined by the evolutionary age of secondaries,and the scatter of the cooling time decreases with the evolutionary age.Our results may indicate that WDs with a long cooling time have more uniform properties than those with a short cooling time,which may be helpful to explain why SNe Ia in elliptical galaxies have a more uniform maximum luminosity than those in spiral galaxies.     

Observational characteristics and possible asphericity of overluminous Type Ia supernovae

A few Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been suggested to be an explosion of a super-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf (WD) in order to account for their large luminosities, requiring a large amount of ⁵⁶Ni. However, the candidate overluminous SNe Ia 2003fg, 2006gz and (moderately overluminous) SN 1991T have very different observational features: the characteristic time-scale and velocity are very different. We examine if and how the diversity can be explained, by one-dimensional spherical radiation transport calculations covering a wide range of model parameters (e.g. WD mass). The observations of SN 2006gz are naturally explained by the super-Chandrasekhar-mass model. SN 1991T represents a marginal case, which may either be a Chandrasekhar or a super-Chandrasekhar-mass WD explosion. In contrast, the low velocity and short time-scale seen in SN 2003fg indicate that the ejecta mass is smaller than the Chandrasekhar mass, which is in apparent contradiction to the large luminosity. We suggest that the problem is solved if the progenitor WD, and thus the SN explosion, is aspherical. This may reflect a rapid rotation of the progenitor star, likely a consequence of the super-Chandrasekhar-mass WD progenitor. The observed differences between SNe 2003fg and 2006gz may be attributed to different viewing orientations.     

WD + He star systems as the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae and their surviving companion stars

Employing Eggleton’s stellar evolution code with the optically thick wind assumption, we have systematically studied the WD + He star channel of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), in which a carbon–oxygen WD accretes material from a He main-sequence star or a He subgiant to increase its mass to the Chandrasekhar mass. We mapped out the parameter spaces for producing SNe Ia. According to a detailed binary population synthesis approach, we find that the Galactic SN Ia birthrate from this channel is ～0.3×10^?3 yr^?1, and that this channel can produce SNe Ia with short delay times (～45–140 Myr). We also find that the surviving companion stars in this channel have a high spatial velocity (>400 km/s) after the SN explosion, which could be an alternative origin for hypervelocity stars (HVSs), especially for HVSs such as US 708.     

WD+MS systems as the progenitor of SNe Ia

The single-degenerate (SD) channel for the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is one of the most popular channels, in which a carbon–oxygen white dwarf (CO WD) accretes hydrogen-rich material from its companion, increases its mass to the Chandrasekhar mass limit, and then explodes as a SN Ia. We show the initial and final parameter space for SNe Ia in a ( $\log P^{\mathrm{i}},M_{2}^{\mathrm{i}}$ ) plane and find that the positions of some famous recurrent novae, as well as a supersoft X-ray source (SSS), RX J0513.9-6951, are well explained by our model. The model can also explain the space velocity and mass of Tycho G, which is now suggested to be the companion star of Tycho’s supernova. Our study indicates that the SSS, V Sge, might be the potential progenitor of supernovae like SN 2002ic if the delayed dynamical-instability model due to Han and Podsiadlowski (Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 368:1095, 2006) is appropriate. Following the work of Meng et al. (Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 395:2103, 2009a), we found that the SD model (WD+MS) with an optically thick wind can explain the birth rate of supernovae like SN 2006X and reproduce the distribution of the color excess of SNe Ia. The model also predicts that at least 75% of all SNe Ia may show a polarization signal in their spectra.     

Galactic models and white dwarf populations

We make use of a previous well-tested Galactic model, but describing the observational behaviour of the various stellar components in terms of suitable assumptions on their evolutionary status. In this way we are able to predict the expected distribution of Galactic white dwarfs (WDs), with results which appear in rather good agreement with recent estimates of the local WD luminosity function. The predicted occurrence of WDs in deep observations of selected Galactic fields is presented, and we discuss the role played by WDs in star counts. The effects on the theoretical predictions of different white dwarf evolutionary models, ages, initial mass functions and relations between progenitor mass and WD mass are also discussed.     

Supersoft X‐ray sources and the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae

Supersoft X‐ray sources have been proposed as one of the major channels to produce Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). However, the true nature of the progenitors has remained an unsolved problem. In this review I summarize the present status of our understanding of SN Ia progenitors, the main classes of progenitor models and recent observational constraints. At present, neither the single‐degenerate nor the double‐degenerate model can be ruled out, and indeed more than one channel may be required to explain the observed SN Ia diversity. Finally, I discuss the origin of the lightcurve peak – lightcurve width relation (the ‘Phillips relation’) and show that it is expected to depend on metallicity; this needs to be taken into account in high‐precision cosmological applications (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A likely candidate of type Ia supernova progenitors: the X-ray pulsating companion of the hot subdwarf HD 49798

HD49798 is a hydrogen depleted subdwarf 06 star and has an X-ray pulsating companion(RX J0648.0-4418).The X-ray pulsating companion is a massive white dwarf.Employing Eggleton's stellar evolution code with the optically thick wind assumption,we find that the hot subdwarf HD 49798 and its X-ray pulsating companion could produce a type Ia supernova(SN Ia)in future evolution.This implies that the binary system is a likely candidate of an SN Ia progenitor.We also discuss the possibilities of some other WD+He star systems(e.g.V445 Pup and KPD1930+2752)for producing SNe Ia.     

Accreting white dwarfs as supersoft X‐ray sources

I review various phenomena associated with mass‐accreting white dwarfs (WDs) in the view of supersoft X‐ray sources. When the mass‐accretion rate is low (Ṁ_acc < a few × 10^–7 M⊙yr^–1), hydrogen nuclear burning is unstable and nova outbursts occur. A nova is a transient supersoft X‐ray source (SSS) in its later phase which timescale depends strongly on the WD mass. The X‐ray turn on/off time is a good indicator of the WD mass. At an intermediate mass‐accretion rate an accreting WD becomes a persistent SSS with steady hydrogen burning. For a higher mass‐accretion rate, the WD undergoes “accretion wind evolution” in which the WD accretes matter from the equatorial plane and loses mass by optically thick winds from the other directions. Two SSS, namely RX J0513‐6951 and V Sge, are corresponding objects to this accretion wind evolution. We can specify mass increasing WDs from light‐curve analysis based on the optically thick wind theory using multiwavelength observational data including optical, IR, and supersoft X‐rays. Mass estimates of individual objects give important information for the binary evolution scenario of type Ia supernovae (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

How old are SN Ia progenitor systems? New observational constraints on the distribution of time delays from GALEX

The time delay between the formation of the progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and their detonation is a vital discriminant between the various progenitor scenarios that have been proposed for them. We use Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical and Galaxy Evolution Explorer ( GALEX ) ultraviolet observations of the early-type host galaxies of 21 nearby SNe Ia and quantify the presence or absence of any young stellar population to constrain the minimum time delay for each supernova. We find that early-type host galaxies lack 'prompt' SNe Ia with time delays of ≲100 Myr and that ∼70 per cent SNe Ia have minimum time delays of 275 Myr–1.25 Gyr, with a median of 650 Myr, while at least 20 per cent SNe Ia have minimum time delays of at least 1 Gyr at 95 per cent confidence and two of these four SNe Ia are likely older than 2 Gyr. The distribution of minimum time delays observed matches most closely the expectation for the single-degenerate channel with a main sequence donor. Furthermore, we do not find any evidence that subluminous SNe Ia are associated with long time delays.     

On the Homogeneity of Type Ia Supernovae Light Curves

A self-similar, hydrodynamic model is derived and used to generate SNe light-curves. It is found that the temporal development of the SN light-curve is governed by a ‘dynamic time’ parameter, and that the observed near-identical, normalized light-curves of Type Ia SNe suggest that they have evolved from progenitor stars of the same central density. Fitting the model parameters to observed Type Ia SNe light-curves suggests that the SNe have originated from the same mass progenitors. The model also provides a theoretical basis for the Phillips observation relating the absolute magnitude of the Type Ia SN to its half-width. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Ia超新星：理论与宇宙学

Ia超新星作为测量遥远星距离（从而测定宇宙膨胀速率）的“标准烛光”，已经成为具有重要意义的天体，主要介绍当前Ia超新星研究的理论和观测进展，光谱分光及测光证据表明，Ia超新星是由吸积碳氧白短星热核爆炸产生，但有关Ia超新星前身星双星系统及流体动力学模型仍是有争议的，蓝Ia超新星具有相对均匀的峰值光度，它是天文学家已的校准得最好的示距天体，近年来，人们在利用Ia超新星测量时空方面已取得了巨大进展。