EVLA OBSERVATIONS CONSTRAIN THE ENVIRONMENT AND PROGENITOR SYSTEM OF Type Ia SUPERNOVA 2011fe
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400325, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center (PITT-PACC), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)
We report unique Expanded Very Large Array observations of SN 2011fe representing the most sensitive radio study of a Type Ia supernova to date. Our data place direct constraints on the density of the surrounding medium at radii {approx}10{sup 15}-10{sup 16} cm, implying an upper limit on the mass loss rate from the progenitor system of M-dot < or approx. 6 x 10{sup -10} M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1} (assuming a wind speed of 100 km s{sup -1}) or expansion into a uniform medium with density n{sub CSM} {approx}< 6 cm{sup -3}. Drawing from the observed properties of non-conservative mass transfer among accreting white dwarfs, we use these limits on the density of the immediate environs to exclude a phase space of possible progenitor systems for SN 2011fe. We rule out a symbiotic progenitor system and also a system characterized by high accretion rate onto the white dwarf that is expected to give rise to optically thick accretion winds. Assuming that a small fraction, 1%, of the mass accreted is lost from the progenitor system, we also eliminate much of the potential progenitor parameter space for white dwarfs hosting recurrent novae or undergoing stable nuclear burning. Therefore, we rule out much of the parameter space associated with popular single degenerate progenitor models for SN 2011fe, leaving a limited phase space largely inhabited by some double degenerate systems, as well as exotic single degenerates with a sufficient time delay between mass accretion and SN explosion.
- OSTI ID:
- 22034468
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 750, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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