Insights into thermonuclear supernovae from the incomplete silicon burning process. (arXiv:1212.2410v1 [astro-ph.SR])

Insights into thermonuclear supernovae from the incomplete silicon burning process. (arXiv:1212.2410v1 [astro-ph.SR]):
Type Ia supernova (SNIa) explosions synthesize a few tenths to several tenths
of a solar mass, whose composition is the result of incomplete silicon burning
that reaches peak temperatures of 4 GK to 5 GK. The elemental abundances are
sensitive to the physical conditions in the explosion, making their measurement
a promising clue to uncovering the properties of the progenitor star and of the
explosion itself. Using a parameterized description of the thermodynamic
history of matter undergoing incomplete silicon burning, we computed the final
composition for a range of parameters wide enough to encompass current models
of SNIa. Then, we searched for combinations of elemental abundances that trace
the parameters values and are potentially measurable. For this purpose, we
divide the present study into two epochs of SNIa, namely the optical epoch,
from a few weeks to several months after the explosion, and the X-ray epoch,
which refers to the time period in which the supernova remnant is young,
starting one or two hundred years age and ending a thousand years after the
event. During the optical epoch, the only SNIa property that can be extracted
from the detection of incomplete silicon burning elements is the neutron excess
of the progenitor white dwarf at thermal runaway, which can be determined
through measuring the ratio of the abundance of manganese to that of titanium,
chromium, or vanadium. Conversely, in the X-ray epoch, any abundance ratio
built using a couple of elements from titanium, vanadium, chromium, or
manganese may constrain the initial neutron excess. Furthermore, measuring the
ratio of the abundances of vanadium to manganese in the X-ray might shed light
on the timescale of the thermonuclear explosion.