No Arabic abstract
An observational constraint on the contribution of double degenerates to Type Ia supernovae requires multiple radial velocity measurements of ideally thousands of white dwarfs. This is because only a small fraction of the double degenerate population is massive enough, with orbital periods short enough, to be considered viable Type Ia progenitors. We show how the radial velocity information available from public surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey can be used to pre-select targets for variability, leading to a ten-fold reduction in observing time required compared to an unranked or random survey. We carry out Monte Carlo simulations to quantify the detection probability of various types of binaries in the survey and show that this method, even in the most pessimistic case, doubles the survey size of the largest survey to date (the SPY survey) in less than 15 per cent of the required observing time. Our initial follow-up observations corroborate the method, yielding 15 binaries so far (eight known and seven new), as well as orbital periods for four of the new binaries.
The double-degenerate (DD) model, involving the merging of massive double carbon-oxygen white dwarfs (CO WDs) driven by gravitational wave radiation, is one of the classical pathways for the formation of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Recently, it has been proposed that the WD+He subgiant channel has a significant contribution to the production of massive double WDs, in which the primary WD accumulates mass by accreting He-rich matter from a He subgiant. We evolved about 1800 CO WD+He star systems and obtained a large and dense grid for producing SNe Ia through the DD model. We then performed a series of binary population synthesis simulations for the DD model, in which the WD+He subgiant channel is calculated by interpolations in this grid. According to our standard model, the Galactic birthrate of SNe Ia is about 2.4*10^{-3} yr^{-1} for the WD+He subgiant channel of the DD model; the total birthrate is about 3.7*10^{-3} yr^{-1} for all channels, reproducing that of observations. Previous theoretical models still have deficit with the observed SNe Ia with delay times <1 Gyr and >8 Gyr. After considering the WD+He subgiant channel, we found that the delay time distributions is comparable with the observed results. Additionally, some recent studies proposed that the violent WD mergers are more likely to produce SNe Ia based on the DD model. We estimated that the violent mergers through the DD model may only contribute to about 16% of all SNe Ia.
The merger of two white dwarfs (a.k.a. double degenerate merger) has often been cited as a potential progenitor of type Ia supernovae. Here we combine population synthesis, merger and explosion models with radiation-hydrodynamics light-curve models to study the implications of such a progenitor scenario on the observed type Ia supernova population. Our standard model, assuming double degenerate mergers do produce thermonuclear explosions, produces supernova light-curves that are broader than the observed type Ia sample. In addition, we discuss how the shock breakout and spectral features of these double degenerate progenitors will differ from the canonical bare Chandrasekhar-massed explosion models. We conclude with a discussion of how one might reconcile these differences with current observations.
Double white dwarf binaries with merger timescales smaller than the Hubble time and with a total mass near the Chandrasekhar limit (i.e. classical Chandrasekhar population) or with high-mass primaries (i.e. sub-Chandrasekhar population) are potential supernova type Ia (SNIa) progenitors. However, we have not yet unambiguously confirmed the existence of these objects observationally, a fact that has been often used to criticise the relevance of double white dwarfs for producing SNIa. We analyse whether this lack of detections is due to observational effects. To that end we simulate the double white dwarf binary population in the Galaxy and obtain synthetic spectra for the SNIa progenitors. We demonstrate that their identification, based on the detection of Halpha double-lined profiles arising from the two white dwarfs in the synthetic spectra, is extremely challenging due to their intrinsic faintness. This translates into an observational probability of finding double white dwarf SNIa progenitors in the Galaxy of (2.1+-1.0)x10^{-5} and (0.8+-0.4)x10^{-5} for the classical Chandrasekhar and the sub-Chandrasekhar progenitor populations, respectively. Eclipsing double white dwarf SNIa progenitors are found to suffer from the same observational effect. The next generation of large-aperture telescopes are expected to help in increasing the probability for detection by ~1 order of magnitude. However, it is only with forthcoming observations such as those provided by LISA that we expect to unambiguously confirm or disprove the existence of double white dwarf SNIa progenitors and to test their importance for producing SNIa.
We present 2603 spectra of 462 nearby Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) obtained during 1993-2008 through the Center for Astrophysics Supernova Program. Most of the spectra were obtained with the FAST spectrograph at the FLWO 1.5m telescope and reduced in a consistent manner, making data set well suited for studies of SN Ia spectroscopic diversity. We study the spectroscopic and photometric properties of SN Ia as a function of spectroscopic class using the classification schemes of Branch et al. and Wang et al. The width-luminosity relation appears to be steeper for SN Ia with broader lines. Based on the evolution of the characteristic Si II 6355 line, we propose improved methods for measuring velocity gradients, revealing a larger range than previously suspected, from ~0 to ~400 km/s/day considering the instantaneous velocity decline rate at maximum light. We find a weaker and less significant correlation between Si II velocity and intrinsic B-V color at maximum light than reported by Foley et al., owing to a more comprehensive treatment of uncertainties and host galaxy dust. We study the extent of nuclear burning and report new detections of C II 6580 in 23 early-time spectra. The frequency of C II detections is not higher in SN Ia with bluer colors or narrower light curves, in conflict with the recent results of Thomas et al. Based on nebular spectra of 27 SN Ia, we find no relation between the FWHM of the iron emission feature at ~4700 A and Dm15(B) after removing the two low-luminosity SN 1986G and SN 1991bg, suggesting that the peak luminosity is not strongly dependent on the kinetic energy of the explosion for most SN Ia. Finally, we confirm the correlation of velocity shifts in some nebular lines with the intrinsic B-V color of SN Ia at maximum light, although several outliers suggest a possible non-monotonic behavior for the largest blueshifts.
Single Degenerate model is the most widely accepted progenitor model of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), in which a carbon-oxygen white dwarf (CO WD) accretes hydrogen-rich material from a main sequence or a slightly evolved star (WD +MS) to increase its mass, and explodes when its mass approaches the Chandrasekhar mass limit. During the mass transfer phase between the two components, an optically thick wind may occur and the material lost as the wind may exist as circumstellar material (CSM). Searching the CSM around progenitor star is helpful to discriminate different progenitor models of SNe Ia. Meanwhile, the CSM is a source of color excess.The purpose of this paper is to study the color excess produced from the single-degenerate progenitor model with optically thick wind, and reproduce the distribution of color excesses of SNe Ia. Meng et al. (2009) systemically carried out binary evolution calculation of the WD +MS systems for various metallicities and showed the parameters of the systems before Roche lobe overflow and at the moment of supernova explosion in Meng & Yang (2009). With the results of Meng et al. (2009), we calculate the color excesses of SNe Ia at maximum light via a simple analytic method.We reproduces the distribution of color excesses of SNe Ia by our binary population synthesis approach if the velocity of the optically thick wind is taken to be of order of magnitude of 10 km s$^{rm -1}$. However, if the wind velocity is larger than 100 km s$^{rm -1}$, the reproduction is bad.