Abstract Although Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play an important role in the study of cosmology, their progenitors are still poorly understood. Thermonuclear explosions from the helium double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar mass model have been considered as an alternative method for producing SNe Ia. By adopting the assumption that a double detonation occurs when a He layer with a critical ignition mass accumulates on the surface of a carbon–oxygen white dwarf (CO WD), we perform detailed binary evolution calculations for the He double-detonation model, in which a He layer from a He star accumulates on a CO WD. According to these calculations, we obtain the initial parameter spaces for SNe Ia in the orbital period and secondary mass plane for various initial WD masses. We implement these results into a detailed binary population synthesis approach to calculate SN Ia birthrates and delay times. From this model, the SN Ia birthrate in our Galaxy is ~0.4 − 1.6 × 10−3 yr−1. This indicates that the double-detonation model only produces part of the SNe Ia. The delay times from this model are ~70 − 710 Myr, which contribute to the young population of SNe Ia in the observations. We found that the CO WD + sdB star system CD−30 11223 could produce an SN Ia via the double-detonation model in its future evolution.
Keywords binaries: close — stars: evolution — supernovae: general — white dwarfs
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