The Impact of Metallicity on the Rate of Type Ia Supernovae

Details The Impact of Metallicity on the Rate of Type Ia Supernovae The Impact of Metallicity on the Rate of Type Ia Supernovae

2011-06-15

arxiv.org/abs/1106.3115v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

7 pages, 3 figures

Scientific paper

The metallicity of a star strongly effects both its evolution and the properties of the stellar remnant that results from its demise. It is generally accepted that stars with initial masses below ~8 M_sun leave behind white dwarfs and that some sub-population of these lead to Type Ia supernovae. However, it is often tacitly assumed that metallicity has no effect on the rate of SNe Ia. We propose that a natural consequence of the effects of metallicity is to significantly increase the SN Ia rate in lower-metallicity galaxies. This is because lower-metallicity stars leave behind higher-mass white dwarfs, which should generally be easier to bring to an explosion. Using a simple model to relate the SN rate to galaxy age and metallicity, we find that the elevation in the rate of SNe Ia in lower-mass galaxies measured by LOSS is readily explained. We also find that models using the same parameters agree well with cosmic SN Ia rates up to z~2. We discuss additional implications of metallicity, including for inferences of the SN Ia delay time distribution and super-Chandrasekhar SNe.

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