2008/06/23 by Christopher J. Pritchet, D. Andrew Howell, Mark Sullivan · 3 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/591314
13 pages, 3 figures, accepted in ApJL
arxiv created 2008/06/23 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) occur in both old, passive galaxies and active, star-forming galaxies. This fact, coupled with the strong dependence of SN Ia rate on star formation rate, suggests that SNe Ia form from stars with a wide range of ages. Here we show that the rate of SN Ia explosions is about 1% of the stellar death rate, independent of star formation history. The dependence of SN Ia rate on star formation rate implies a delay time distribution proportional to t −0.5 ± 0.2 . The single-degenerate channel for SNe Ia can be made to match the observed SN Ia rate-SFR relation, but only if white dwarfs are converted to SNe Ia with a uniform efficiency of ~1%, independent of mass. Since low-mass progenitors are expected to have lower conversion efficiencies than high-mass progenitors, we conclude that some other progenitor scenario must be invoked to explain some, or perhaps all, SNe Ia.