Related papers: Finding Supernova Ia Progenitors with the Chandra …
While about 20 Type II supernova progenitors have been identified using optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), direct detection of type Ib/Ic supernova (SN Ib/Ic) progenitors remains challenging due to their faint optical…
Double white dwarf binaries with merger timescales smaller than the Hubble time and with a total mass near the Chandrasekhar limit (i.e. classical Chandrasekhar population) or with high-mass primaries (i.e. sub-Chandrasekhar population) are…
The most favored interpretation for the detection of X-ray emission from late B-type stars is that these stars have a yet undiscovered late-type companion (or an unbound nearby late-type star) that produces the X-rays. Several faint IR…
Supernova Ia are bright explosive events that can be used to estimate cosmological distances, allowing us to study the expansion of the Universe. They are understood to result from a thermonuclear detonation in a white dwarf that formed…
There are two classes of viable progenitors for normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia): systems in which a white dwarf explodes at the Chandrasekhar mass ($M_{ch}$), and systems in which a white dwarf explodes below the Chandrasekhar mass…
The inverse-Compton X-ray emission model for supernovae has been well established to explain the X-ray properties of many supernovae for over 30 years. However, no observational case has yet been found to connect the X-rays with the optical…
In the single degenerate (SD) scenario of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), the collision of the ejecta with its companion results in stripping hydrogen rich matter from the companion star. This hydrogen rich matter might leave its trace in the…
We have considered 53 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT). None of the SNe Ia are individually detected at any time or in stacked images. Using these data and assuming that the SNe Ia are a homogeneous…
Despite the significance of Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) in many fields in astrophysics, SNeIa lack a theoretical explanation. The standard scenarios involve thermonuclear explosions of carbon/oxygen white dwarfs approaching the Chandrasekhar…
Supernova remnants (SNRs) retain crucial information about both their parent explosion and circumstellar material left behind by their progenitor. However, the complexity of the interaction between supernova ejecta and ambient medium often…
The pre-explosion observations of the type II-P supernovae 2006my, 2006ov and 2004et, are re-analysed. In the cases of supernovae 2006my and 2006ov we argue that the published candidate progenitors are not coincident with their respective…
UVOIR bolometric light curves provide valuable insight into the nature of type Ia supernovae. We present an analysis of sixteen well-observed SNe Ia. Constraints are placed on several global parameters concerning the progenitor system,…
We analysed archival data of Chandra pre-explosion observations of the position of SN2014J in M82. No X-ray source at this position was detected in the data, and we calculated upper limits on the luminosities of the progenitor. These upper…
Identifying the massive progenitor stars that give rise to core-collapse supernovae is one of the main pursuits of supernova and stellar evolution studies. In this talk I discuss some aspects of the pursuit of these progenitor stars in…
Although Type Ia supernovae have been heavily scrutinized due to their use in making cosmological distance estimates, we are still unable to definitively identify the progenitors for the entire population. While answers have been presented…
We have used two methods to search for surviving companions of Type Ia supernova progenitors in three Balmer-dominated supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud: 0519-69.0, 0505-67.9 (DEM L71), and 0548-70.4. In the first…
The identity of Type Ia supernova progenitors remains a mystery, with various lines of evidence pointing towards either accretion from a non-degenerate companion, or the rapid merger of two degenerate stars leading to the thermonuclear…
Two main physical mechanisms are used to explain supernova explosions: thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf(Type Ia) and core collapse of a massive star (Type II and Type Ib/Ic). Type Ia supernovae serve as distance indicators that led…
We have started a large survey for double degenerate (DD) binaries as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae with the UVES spectrograph at the ESO VLT (ESO SN Ia Progenitor surveY - SPY). About 400 white dwarfs were checked for radial…
Thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae are bright stellar explosions with the unique property that the light curves can be standardized, allowing them to be used as distance indicators for cosmological studies. Many fundamental questions bout…