Type Ia supernovae in dense circumstellar gas

Abstract

We propose a simple model for the bolometric light curve of type Ia supernova exploding in a dense circumstellar (CS) envelope to describe the light curves of supernovae 2002ic and 1997cy. The modeling shows that at the radius $\sim7\times10^{15}$ cm the density of CS envelopes around both supernovae is similar. The mass of the CS envelope around SN 1997cy is close to $5 M_{\odot}$, while the characteristic time of the ejection of this envelope does not exceed 600 yr. We analyze two possible evolutionary scenarios which might lead to the explosion of type Ia supernova inside a dense CS envelope: accretion on CO white dwarf in the symbiotic binary and evolution of a single star with the initial mass of about $8 M_{\odot}$. If the conjecture about the explosion of type Ia supernova in a dense CS envelope is correct in the case of SN 2002ic and SN 1997cy then the rapid loss of the red supergiant envelope and the subsequent explosion of the CO white dwarf are synchronized by certain mechanism. This mechanism might be related to the contraction of the white dwarf as it approaches the Chandrasekhar limit. We show that formation of a (super)Chandrasekhar mass due to the merger of a CO white dwarf and CO core of a red supergiant with consequent explosion is unlikely, since it does not provide the required synchronization of the rapid mass loss and explosion.