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The missing parents of cosmology's favorite standard candles.

TYPEColloquium
Speaker:Professor Dan Maoz
Affiliation:School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University
Date:12.01.2012
Time:16:30
Location:Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323)
Abstract:
Type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are thermonuclear bombs in which about one

solar mass of carbon and oxygen are burned into iron-peak elements.

The fuel is apparently a "white dwarf" stellar remnant. SNe Ia became

popular about 15 years ago, when it became clear that they can serve

as excellent cosmological distance indicators. In 1998, they provided

the first evidence that the cosmic expansion is accelerating under the

influence of an enigmatic "dark energy", culminating in the 2011 Nobel

Prize in Physics. However, despite their confident use for cosmology,

a major embarrassment remains: no one knows, based on direct evidence,

what exactly is exploding. Two scenarios have been on the table for a

long time for explaining how a white dwarf can ignite and explode as a

SN Ia. In the "single-degenerate" picture, a white dwarf accretes

matter from a companion "normal" star (i.e. a star with a classical

equation of state) , until approaching the Chandrasekhar limit and

igniting. In the "double-degenerate" picture, a close white-dwarf

binary loses energy and angular momentum to gravitational waves, until

the two white dwarfs merge, thus starting the ignition and the

thermonuclear runaway. However, both scenarios have theoretical and

observational problems, and little or no direct evidence to support

them. Measurement of SN Ia rates, as a function of cosmic time and

environment, can shed light on this problem. I will show how,

recently, many different measurements are converging toward a single

SN Ia "delay-time distribution". This is is the SN Ia rate, as a

function of time, that would follow a hypothetical short burst of star

formation, i.e., it is the Green's function of SNe Ia. The emerging

function is remarkably similar to what one expects from white dwarf

mergers, based directly on the fundamentals of gravitational wave

emission.

Type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are thermonuclear bombs in which about onesolar mass of carbon and oxygen are burned into iron-peak elements.The fuel is apparently a "white dwarf" stellar remnant. SNe Ia becamepopular about 15 years ago, when it became clear that they can serveas excellent cosmological distance indicators. In 1998, they providedthe first evidence that the cosmic expansion is accelerating under theinfluence of an enigmatic "dark energy", culminating in the 2011 NobelPrize in Physics. However, despite their confident use for cosmology,a major embarrassment remains: no one knows, based on direct evidence,what exactly is exploding. Two scenarios have been on the table for along time for explaining how a white dwarf can ignite and explode as aSN Ia. In the "single-degenerate" picture, a white dwarf accretesmatter from a companion "normal" star (i.e. a star with a classicalequation of state) , until approaching the Chandrasekhar limit andigniting. In the "double-degenerate" picture, a close white-dwarfbinary loses energy and angular momentum to gravitational waves, untilthe two white dwarfs merge, thus starting the ignition and thethermonuclear runaway. However, both scenarios have theoretical andobservational problems, and little or no direct evidence to supportthem. Measurement of SN Ia rates, as a function of cosmic time andenvironment, can shed light on this problem. I will show how,recently, many different measurements are converging toward a singleSN Ia "delay-time distribution". This is is the SN Ia rate, as afunction of time, that would follow a hypothetical short burst of starformation, i.e., it is the Green's function of SNe Ia. The emergingfunction is remarkably similar to what one expects from white dwarfmergers, based directly on the fundamentals of gravitational waveemission.