Evidence for two distinct populations of type Ia supernovae. Academic Article

abstract

• Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been used as excellent standardizable candles for measuring cosmic expansion, but their progenitors are still elusive. Here, we report that the spectral diversity of SNe Ia is tied to their birthplace environments. We found that those with high-velocity ejecta are substantially more concentrated in the inner and brighter regions of their host galaxies than are normal-velocity SNe Ia. Furthermore, the former tend to inhabit larger and more luminous hosts. These results suggest that high-velocity SNe Ia likely originate from relatively younger and more metal-rich progenitors than do normal-velocity SNe Ia and are restricted to galaxies with substantial chemical evolution.

authors

• Wang, Lifan

published proceedings

• Science

altmetric score

• 27.55

author list (cited authors)

• Wang, X., Wang, L., Filippenko, A. V., Zhang, T., & Zhao, X.

citation count

• 128

complete list of authors

• Wang, Xiaofeng||Wang, Lifan||Filippenko, Alexei V||Zhang, Tianmeng||Zhao, Xulin

publication date

• April 2013

publisher

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)  Publisher

published in

• Science  Journal

keywords

• 0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences

PubMed Central ID

• 23470733

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1126/science.1231502

start page

• 170

end page

• 173

volume

• 340

issue

• 6129

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1231502