Prospects for SNIa Explosion Mechanism Identification Through Supernova Remnants

We present the first results from an ongoing work aimed to use supernovae remnants to discriminate among different type Ia supernovae explosion models. We have computed the hydrodynamic interaction of supernova ejecta with the interstellar medium, obtaining the evolution of the density, temperature and ionization structure of the remnant. We have used ejecta profiles obtained from 1D hydrodynamic calculations of the different explosion mechanisms that are currently under debate. We have analyzed the best indicators that allow to discriminate among the different explosion mechanisms, taking into account the diversity of scenarios proposed for the presupernova evolution of the binary system, and the uncertain amount of electron heating in collisionless shocks.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the ESO/MPA/MPE Workshop 'From Twilight to Highlight', the Physics of Supernovae. Garching July 29 - 31, 200

The Progenitors and Lifetimes of Planetary Nebula

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) are amongst the most spectacular objects produced by stellar evolution, but the exact identity of their progenitors has never been established for a large and homogeneous observational sample. We investigate the relationship between PNe and their stellar progenitors in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) through the statistical comparison between a highly complete spectroscopic catalog of PNe and the spatially resolved age distribution of the underlying stellar populations. We find that most PN progenitors in the LMC have main-sequence lifetimes in a narrow range between 5 and 8 Gyr, which corresponds to masses between 1.2 and 1.0 M$_{\odot}$, and produce PNe that last $26^{+6}_{-7}$~kyr on average. We tentatively detect a second population of PN progenitors, with main-sequence lifetimes between 35 and 800~Myr, i.e., masses between 8.2 and 2.1 M$_{\odot}$, and average PN lifetimes of $11^{+6}_{-7}$ kyr. These two distinct and disjoint populations of progenitors strongly suggest the existence of at least two physically distinct formation channels for PNe. Our determination of PN lifetimes and progenitor masses has implications for the understanding of PNe in the context of stellar evolution models, and for the role that rotation, magnetic fields, and binarity can play in the shaping of PN morphologies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication by ApJ Letter

Characterizing the Galactic White Dwarf Binary Population with Sparsely Sampled Radial Velocity Data

We present a method to characterize statistically the parameters of a detached binary sample - binary fraction, separation distribution, and mass ratio distribution - using noisy radial-velocity data with as few as two, randomly spaced, epochs per object. To do this, we analyze the distribution of DRVmax, the maximum radial-velocity difference between any two epochs for the same object. At low values, the core of this distribution is dominated by measurement errors, but for large enough samples there is a high-velocity tail that can effectively constrain the parameters of the binary population. We discuss our approach for the case of a population of detached white-dwarf (WD) binaries with separations that are decaying via gravitational wave emission. We derive analytic expressions for the present-day distribution of separations, integrated over the star-formation history of the Galaxy, for parametrized initial WD separation distributions at the end of the common-envelope phase. We use Monte Carlo techniques to produce grids of simulated DRVmax distributions with specific binary population parameters, and the same sampling cadences and radial velocity errors as the observations, and we compare them to the real DRVmax distribution to constrain the properties of the binary population. We illustrate the sensitivity of the method to both the model and the observational parameters. In the particular case of binary white dwarfs, every model population predicts a merger rate per star which can easily be compared to type-Ia supernova rates. In a companion paper, we apply the method to a sample of about 4000 WDs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and we find a merger rate remarkably similar to the rate of Type-Ia supernovae in Milky-Way-like galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, ApJ, in pres

SNR-calibrated Type Ia supernova models

Current Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) models can reproduce most visible+IR + UV observations. In the X-ray band, the determination of elemental abundance ratios in supernova remnants (SNRs) through their spectra has reached enough precision to constrain SN Ia models. Martínez-Rodríguez et al have shown that the Ca/S mass ratio in SNRs cannot be reproduced with the standard nuclear reaction rates for a wide variety of SN Ia models, and suggested that the 12C+16O reaction rate could be overestimated by a factor as high as ten. We show that the same Ca/S ratio can be obtained by simultaneously varying the rates of the reactions 12C + 16O, 12C + 12C, 16O + 16O, and 16O(¿, a)12C within the reported uncertainties. We also show that the yields of the main products of SN Ia nucleosynthesis do not depend on the details of which rates are modified, but can be parametrized by an observational quantity such as Ca/S. Using this SNR-calibrated approach, we then proceed to compute a new set of SN Ia models and nucleosynthesis for both Chandrasekhar and sub-Chandrasekhar mass progenitors with a 1D hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis code. We discuss the nucleosynthesis of the models as a function of progenitor metallicity, mass, and deflagration-to-detonation transition density. The yields of each model are almost independent on the reaction rates modified for a common Ca/S ratio.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft