Young and Massive Binary Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae and Their Circumstellar Matter

Abstract

We present new evolutionary models for Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) progenitors, introducing the mass-stripping effect on a main-sequence (MS) or slightly evolved companion star by winds from a mass-accreting white dwarf (WD). The mass stripping attenuates the rate of mass transfer from the companion to the WD. As a result, a very massive MS companion can avoid forming a common envelope and thus can increase the WD mass up until the SN Ia explosion. Including the mass-stripping effect, we follow binary evolutions of various WD + MS systems and obtain the parameter region in the initial donor mass-orbital period plane in which SNe Ia occur. The newly obtained SN Ia region extends to donor masses of 6-7 M☉, although its extension depends on the efficiency of the mass-stripping effect. The stripped matter would mainly be distributed on the orbital plane and would form very massive circumstellar matter (CSM) around the SN Ia progenitor. This can explain the massive CSM around the Type Ia/IIn(IIa) supernovae SN 2002ic and SN 2005gj, as well as the tenuous CSM around the normal Type Ia supernova SN 2006X. Our new model suggests the presence of very young (108 yr) populations of SNe Ia, which is consistent with recent observational indications of young-population SNe Ia.