Search for progenitors of supernovae type Ia with SPY

Abstract

Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 48 Pyatnitskaya Str., 109017 Moscow, RussiaReceived date; accepted dateAbstract. We have started a large survey for double degenerate (DD) binaries as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovaewith the UVES spectrograph at the ESO VLT (ESO SNIa Progenitor surveY – SPY). About 400 white dwarfs were checkedfor radial velocity variations during the first 15 months of t his project, twice the number of white dwarfs investigated duringthe last 20 years. We give an overview of the SPY project and present first results Fifty four new DDs have been discovered,seven of them double lined (only 18 and 6 objects of these groups were known before, respectively). The final sample isexpected to contain 150 to 200 DDs. Eight new pre-cataclysmic binaries were also detected. SPY is the first DD surveywhich encompasses also non-DA white dwarfs. SPY produces animmense, unique sample of very high resolution whitedwarf spectra, which provides a lot of spin-off opportunities. We describe our projects to exploit the SPY sample for thedetermination of basic parameters, kinematics, and rotational velocities of white dwarfs. A catalogue with a first subs et ofour white dwarf data has already been published by Koester et al. (2001).