Obscuration of Supersoft X-ray Sources by Circumbinary Material - A Way to Hide Type Ia Supernova Progenitors?. (arXiv:1207.6310v1 [astro-ph.SR])

Obscuration of Supersoft X-ray Sources by Circumbinary Material - A Way to Hide Type Ia Supernova Progenitors?. (arXiv:1207.6310v1 [astro-ph.SR]):
The progenitors of supernovae (SNe) type Ia are usually assumed to be either
a single white dwarf (WD) accreting from a non-degenerate companion (the SD
channel) or the result of two merging WDs (DD channel). However, no consensus
currently exists as to which progenitor scenario is the correct one, or whether
the observed SN Ia rate is produced by a combination of both channels. Unlike a
DD progenitor a SD progenitor is expected to emit supersoft X-rays for a
prolonged period of time (~1 Myr) as a result of the burning of accreted matter
on the surface of the WD. An argument against the SD channel as a significant
producer of SNe type Ia has been the lack of observed supersoft X-ray sources
(SSS) and the lower-than-expected integrated soft X-ray flux from elliptical
galaxies.

We wish to determine if it is possible to obscure the supersoft X-ray
emission from a nuclear burning white dwarf in an accreting single degenerate
binary system. In case of obscured systems we wish to determine their general
observational characteristics.

We examine the emergent X-ray emission from a canonical SSS system surrounded
by a spherically symmetric configuration of material, assuming a black body
spectrum with T_BB=50 eV and L=10^38 erg/s. The circumbinary material is
assumed to be of solar chemical abundances, and we leave the mechanism behind
the mass loss into the circumbinary region unspecified.

If steadily accreting, nuclear burning WDs are canonical SSS our analysis
suggests that they can be obscured by relatively modest circumbinary mass loss
rates. This may explain the discrepancy of SSS compared to the SN Ia rate
inferred from observations if the SD progenitor scenario contributes
significantly to the SN Ia rate. Recycled emissions from obscured systems may
be visible in other wavebands than X-rays. It may also explain the lack of
observed SSS in symbiotic binary systems.