Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

An upper limit on the contribution of accreting white dwarfs to the type Ia supernova rate

Nature volume 463, pages 924–925 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

There is wide agreement that type Ia supernovae (used as standard candles for cosmology) are associated with the thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars1,2. The nuclear runaway that leads to the explosion could start in a white dwarf gradually accumulating matter from a companion star until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit3, or could be triggered by the merger of two white dwarfs in a compact binary system4,5. The X-ray signatures of these two possible paths are very different. Whereas no strong electromagnetic emission is expected in the merger scenario until shortly before the supernova, the white dwarf accreting material from the normal star becomes a source of copious X-rays for about 107 years before the explosion. This offers a means of determining which path dominates. Here we report that the observed X-ray flux from six nearby elliptical galaxies and galaxy bulges is a factor of ∼30–50 less than predicted in the accretion scenario, based upon an estimate of the supernova rate from their K-band luminosities. We conclude that no more than about five per cent of type Ia supernovae in early-type galaxies can be produced by white dwarfs in accreting binary systems, unless their progenitors are much younger than the bulk of the stellar population in these galaxies, or explosions of sub-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs make a significant contribution to the supernova rate.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hillebrandt, W. & Niemeyer, J. C. Type Ia supernova explosion models. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 38, 191–230 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Livio, M. in Type Ia Supernovae, Theory and Cosmology (eds Niemeyer, J. C. & Truran, J. W.) 33 (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Whelan, J. & Iben, I. Binaries and supernovae of type I. Astrophys. J. 186, 1007–1014 (1973)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Iben, I. & Tutukov, A. V. Supernovae of type I as end products of the evolution of binaries with components of moderate initial mass (M not greater than about 9 solar masses). Astrophys. J. 54 (Suppl.). 335–372 (1984)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Webbink, R. Double white dwarfs as progenitors of R Coronae Borealis stars and type I supernovae. Astrophys. J. 277, 355–360 (1984)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Weidemann, W. Revision of the initial-to-final mass relation. Astron. Astrophys. 363, 647–656 (2000)

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoeflich, P. & Khokhlov, A. Explosion models for type Ia supernovae: a comparison with observed light curves, distances, H 0, and q 0 . Astrophys. J. 457, 500–528 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Nugent, P., Baron, E., Branch, D., Fisher, A. & Hauschildt, P. H. Synthetic spectra of hydrodynamic models of type Ia supernovae. Astrophys. J. 485, 812–819 (1997)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fink, M., Hillebrandt, W. & Röpke, F. K. Double-detonation supernovae of sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs. Astron. Astrophys. 476, 1133–1143 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Nomoto, K., Saio, H., Kato, M. & Hachisu, I. Thermal stability of white dwarfs accreting hydrogen-rich matter and progenitors of type Ia supernovae. Astrophys. J. 663, 1269–1276 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Yaron, O., Prialnik, D., Shara, M. M. & Kovetz, A. An extended grid of nova models. II. The parameter space of nova outbursts. Astrophys. J. 623, 398–410 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Panei, J. A., Althaus, L. G. & Benvenuto, O. G. Mass-radius relations for white dwarf stars of different internal compositions. Astron. Astrophys. 353, 970–977 (2000)

    ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Kahabka, P. & van den Heuvel, E. P. J. Luminous supersoft X-ray sources. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 35, 69–100 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Mannucci, F. et al. The supernova rate per unit mass. Astron. Astrophys. 433, 807–814 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Di Stefano, R. et al. Supersoft X-ray sources in M31. I. A Chandra survey and an extension to quasi-soft sources. Astrophys. J. 610, 247–260 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Terlevich, I. A. & Forbes, D. A. A catalogue and analysis of local galaxy ages and metallicities. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 330, 547–562 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Gallagher, J. S. et al. Supernovae in early-type galaxies: directly connecting age and metallicity with type Ia luminosity. Astrophys. J. 685, 752–766 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Bogdán, Á. & Gilfanov, M. Unresolved emission and ionized gas in the bulge of M31. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 388, 56–66 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Hachisu, I., Kato, M. & Nomoto, K. A new model for progenitor systems of type Ia supernovae. Astrophys. J. 470, L97–L100 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Nomoto, K., Nariai, K. & Sugimoto, D. Rapid mass accretion onto white dwarfs and formation of an extended envelope. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 31, 287–298 (1979)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Li, X.-D. & van den Heuvel, E. P. J. Evolution of white dwarf binaries: supersoft X-ray sources and progenitors of type Ia supernovae. Astron. Astrophys. 322, L9–L12 (1997)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Schawinski, K. How old are SN Ia progenitor systems? New observational constraints on the distribution of time delays from GALEX. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 397, 717–725 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Iben, I. & Tutukov, A. V. Helium-accreting degenerate dwarfs as presupernovae and scenarios for the ultrasoft X-ray sources. Astrophys. J. 431, 264–272 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank F. Meyer and H. Ritter for discussions of various aspects of mass transfer in binary systems and the role of the common envelope evolution and L. Yungelson for discussions on the type Ia supernovae progenitor problem in general. This research has made use of Chandra archival data, provided by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) in the application package CIAO. This research has also made use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA and the NSF. The Spitzer Space telescope is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA.

Author Contributions Both authors contributed equally to this Letter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, 85741 Garching, Germany ,

    Marat Gilfanov & Ákos Bogdán

  2. Space Research Institute, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, 117997 Moscow, Russia ,

    Marat Gilfanov

Authors
  1. Marat Gilfanov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ákos Bogdán
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marat Gilfanov.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gilfanov, M., Bogdán, Á. An upper limit on the contribution of accreting white dwarfs to the type Ia supernova rate. Nature 463, 924–925 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08685

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08685

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing