2025MNRAS.538L...1T -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 538, L1-L8 (2025/March-3)
Merging white dwarf binaries produce Type Ia supernovae in elliptical galaxies.
TUCKER M.A.
Abstract (from CDS):
I find that Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) with bimodal nebular emission profiles occur almost exclusively in massive (${\rm M_\star } \gtrsim 10^{11}~{\rm M_\odot }$) galaxies with low star formation rates (SFR $\lesssim 0.5~{\rm M_\odot }$ yr–1). The bimodal profiles are likely produced by two white dwarfs (WDs) that exploded during a merger or collision, supported by a correlation between the peak-to-peak velocity separation ($v_{\rm sep}$) and the SN Ia peak luminosity ($M_V$) which arises naturally from more massive WD binaries synthesizing more $^{56}$Ni during the explosion. The distributions of SNe Ia with and without bimodal nebular lines differ in host mass, SFR, and specific SFR with Kolmogorov-Smirnov test probabilities of $3.1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, $0.03{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, and $0.02{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, respectively. Viewing angle effects can fully explain the SNe Ia in quiescent hosts without bimodal emission profiles and the dearth of merger/collision driven SNe Ia in star-forming hosts requires at least two distinct progenitor channels for normal SNe Ia. $30\!-\!40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of all SNe Ia originate from mergers or collisions depending on how cleanly host environment distinguishes progenitor scenarios. Existing models for WD mergers and collisions broadly reproduce the $v_{\rm sep}$-$M_V$ correlation and future analyses may be able to infer the masses/mass-ratios of merging WDs in external galaxies.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
transients: supernovae - binaries: close - white dwarfs - galaxies: stellar content
Simbad objects:
103
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