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Title: A Chandrasekhar mass progenitor for the Type Ia supernova remnant 3C 397 from the enhanced abundances of nickel and manganese

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [3];  [5];  [9]
  1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  4. Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya, Sant Cugat del Valles (Spain)
  5. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  6. Kyoto Univ., Kyoto (Japan); Univ. of Tokyo, Chiba (Japan)
  7. Univ. Kitashirakawa-oiwake-cho, Kyoto (Japan)
  8. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  9. Univ. Kitashirakawa-oiwake-cho, Kyoto (Japan); Osaka Univ., Osaka (Japan)

Despite decades of intense efforts, many fundamental aspects of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) remain elusive. One of the major open questions is whether the mass of an exploding white dwarf (WD) is close to the Chandrasekhar limit. Here, we report the detection of strong K-shell emission from stable Fe-peak elements in the Suzaku X-ray spectrum of the Type Ia supernova remnant (SNR) 3C 397. The high Ni/Fe and Mn/Fe mass ratios (0.11–0.24 and 0.018–0.033, respectively) in the hot plasma component that dominates the K-shell emission lines indicate a degree of neutronization in the supernova ejecta that can only be achieved by electron capture in the dense cores of exploding WDs with a near-Chandrasekhar mass. This suggests a single-degenerate origin for 3C 397, since Chandrasekhar mass progenitors are expected naturally if the WD accretes mass slowly from a companion. Altogether with other results supporting the double-degenerate scenario, our work adds to the mounting evidence that both progenitor channels make a significant contribution to the SN Ia rate in star-forming galaxies.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1240422
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-29193
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters (Online), Vol. 801, Issue 2; ISSN 2041-8213
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 82 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Abundances of disk and bulge giants from high-resolution optical spectra: III. Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni★★★ journal May 2019
Sensitivity of Type Ia supernovae to electron capture rates journal April 2019
16 O(p, α ) 13 N makes explosive oxygen burning sensitive to the metallicity of the progenitors of type Ia supernovae journal July 2019
A catalogue of Galactic supernova remnants in the far-infrared: revealing ejecta dust in pulsar wind nebulae journal October 2018
Chemical evolution with rotating massive star yields – I. The solar neighbourhood and the s-process elements journal February 2018
Constraints on the chemical enrichment history of the Perseus Cluster of galaxies from high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy journal November 2018
Partly burnt runaway stellar remnants from peculiar thermonuclear supernovae journal June 2019
Fe–K LINE TIME VARIABILITY AND Ni ABUNDANCE OF DISTANT REFLECTORS IN SEYFERT GALAXIES journal April 2016
Whimper of a Bang: Documenting the Final Days of the Nearby Type Ia Supernova 2011fe journal May 2017
Strong Evidence against a Non-degenerate Companion in SN 2012cg journal February 2018
Role of Core-collapse Supernovae in Explaining Solar System Abundances of p Nuclides journal February 2018
Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Detonations Revisited journal February 2018
i -process Contribution of Rapidly Accreting White Dwarfs to the Solar Composition of First-peak Neutron-capture Elements journal February 2018
Evidence for a Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass Type Ia Supernova in the Ursa Minor Dwarf Galaxy journal April 2018
Explosive Nucleosynthesis in Near-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Models for Type Ia Supernovae: Dependence on Model Parameters journal July 2018
Nucleosynthesis Constraints on the Explosion Mechanism for Type Ia Supernovae journal August 2018
Chandrasekhar and Sub-Chandrasekhar Models for the X-Ray Emission of Type Ia Supernova Remnants. I. Bulk Properties journal October 2018
Evolutionary Models for 15 Galactic Supernova Remnants with New Distances journal October 2018
Measurement of the Core-collapse Progenitor Mass Distribution of the Small Magellanic Cloud journal January 2019
The Intrinsic Stochasticity of the 56 Ni Distribution of Single-degenerate Near-Chandrasekhar-mass SN Ia journal June 2019
Evidence for Sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernovae from Stellar Abundances in Dwarf Galaxies journal August 2019
Double-detonation Models for Type Ia Supernovae: Trigger of Detonation in Companion White Dwarfs and Signatures of Companions’ Stripped-off Materials journal November 2019
Explosive Nucleosynthesis in Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Models for Type Ia Supernovae: Dependence on Model Parameters journal January 2020
Evidence for Rapid Adiabatic Cooling as an Origin of the Recombining Plasma in the Supernova Remnant W49B Revealed by NuSTAR Observations journal November 2018
Progenitors of type Ia supernovae journal June 2012
Explosive Nucleosynthesis in Near-Chandrasekhar Mass White Dwarf Models for Type Iax Supernovae: Dependence on Model Parameters journal August 2020
Role of Core-collapse Supernovae in Explaining Solar System Abundances of p Nuclides text January 2018
Neutrino and gravitational wave signal of a delayed-detonation model of Type Ia supernovae text January 2015
Type Ia Supernova Explosions from Hybrid Carbon-Oxygen-Neon White Dwarf Progenitors text January 2016
Fe-K Line Time variability and Ni abundance of Distant Reflector in Seyfert Galaxies text January 2016
Progenitors of type Ia supernovae text January 2016
Strong Evidence Against A Non-Degenerate Companion in SN 2012cg text January 2016
Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf detonations revisited text January 2017
Asymmetric Type-Ia supernova origin of W49B as revealed from spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopic study text January 2017
Evidence for a Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass Type~Ia Supernova in the Ursa Minor Dwarf Galaxy text January 2017
i-Process Contribution of Rapidly Accreting White Dwarfs to the Solar Composition of First-Peak Neutron-Capture Elements text January 2017
Measurement of the core-collapse progenitor mass distribution of the Small Magellanic Cloud text January 2018
Constraints on the Chemical Enrichment History of the Perseus Cluster of Galaxies from High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy text January 2018
Nucleosynthesis Constraints on the Explosion Mechanism for Type Ia Supernovae text January 2018
A Catalogue of Galactic Supernova Remnants in the far-infrared: revealing ejecta dust in pulsar wind nebulae text January 2018
Evidence for Rapid Adiabatic Cooling as an Origin of the Recombining Plasma in the Supernova Remnant W49B Revealed by NuSTAR Observations text January 2018
Sensitivity of Type Ia supernovae to electron capture rates text January 2019
Double-Detonation Models for Type Ia Supernovae: Trigger of Detonation in Companion White Dwarfs and Signatures of Companions' Stripped-off Materials text January 2019
Radio Emission from Interstellar Shocks: Young Type Ia Supernova Remnants and the Case of N 103B in the Large Magellanic Cloud text January 2019
Explosive Nucleosynthesis in Near-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Models for Type Iax Supernovae: Dependence on Model Parameters text January 2020