Type Ia supernovae: colors, rates, and progenitors

The rate of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in a galaxy depends not only on stellar mass, but also on star formation history (SFH). Here we show that two simple observational quantities (g − r or u − r host galaxy color, and r-band luminosity), coupled with an assumed delay time distribution (DTD) (the rate of SNe Ia as a function of time for an instantaneous burst of star formation), are sufficient to accurately determine a galaxy's SN Ia rate, with very little sensitivity to the precise details of the SFH. Using this result, we compare observed and predicted color distributions of SN Ia hosts for the MENeaCS cluster supernova survey, and for the SDSS Stripe 82 supernova survey. The observations are consistent with a continuous DTD, without any cutoff. For old progenitor systems, the power-law slope for the DTD is found to be $-{1.50}_{-0.15}^{+0.19}$. This result favors the double degenerate scenario for SN Ia, though other interpretations are possible. We find that the late-time slopes of the DTD are different at the 1σ level for low and high stretch supernova, which suggest a single degenerate (SD) scenario for the latter. However, due to ambiguity in the current models' DTD predictions, SD progenitors can neither be confirmed as causing high stretch supernovae nor ruled out from contributing to the overall sample.