Exploration of Aspherical Ejecta Properties in Type Ia Supernovae: Progenitor Dependence and Applications to Progenitor Classification

Abstract

Several explosions of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been found to exhibit deviations from spherical symmetry upon closer inspection. Examples are the gamma-ray lines from SN 2014J as measured by INTEGRAL/SPI and morphology information from radioactive isotopes in older remnants such as Tycho. A systematic study of the effects of parameters such as ignition geometry and burning morphology in SNe Ia is still missing. We use a two-dimensional hydrodynamics code with postprocessing nucleosynthesis and simulate the double detonations in a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass carbon–oxygen white dwarf starting from the nuclear runaway in the accumulated He envelope toward disruption of the white dwarf. We explore potential variety through four triggering scenarios that sample main asymmetry drivers. We further investigate their global effects on the aspherical structure of the ejecta based on individual elements. We apply the results to the well-observed SN 2014J and other recently observed SN remnants in order to illustrate how these new observational data, together with other observed quantities, help to constrain the explosion and progenitors of SNe Ia.