The origin of intergalactic thermonuclear supernovae
Abstract
The population synthesis method is used to study the possibility of explaining the appreciable fraction (20^+12_15%) of the intergalactic (no-host) type Ia supernovae observed in galaxy clusters (Gal-Yam ete al. 2003) by binary whote dwarf merginngs in the cores of globular clusters. In a typical globular cluster, the number of merging double white dwarfs is fount to be smaller than 10^{-13} per year per average cluster star during the entire evolution of the cluster, which is a factor of 3 higher than in a Milky-Way-type galaxy. From 5 to 30% of the merging white dwarfs are dynamically expelled from the cluster with barycenter velocities up to 150 km/s. SN Ia explosions during the mergers of binary white dwarfs in dense star clusters may account for \sim 1% of the total rate of SN Ia in the central parts of galaxy clusters if the baryon mass fraction in such star clusters is \sim 0.3%.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0401452,
title = {The origin of intergalactic thermonuclear supernovae},
author = {A. G. Kuranov and K. A. Postnov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0401452},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 3 figs. Astronomy Letters (in press)