Evolution of Type Ia Supernovae on Cosmological Time Scales

Abstract

Due to their high luminosity at maximum and degree of homogeneity, Type Ia supernovae have been extensively used for cosmological purpouses, in particular to estimate extragalactic distances and the Hubble constant. Recently the number of Type Ia supernovae detected at high redshift has increased, opening the possibility of determining the mass density parameter, the cosmological constant and the deceleration parameter. The observed supernovae appear to be further than expected -even for an empty Universe-, implying a low density Universe and moreover an accelerating Universe. Among the various uncertainties, we address the possibility that old supernovae are not equal to current supernovae. From first principles, an evolution of progenitors with time is expected. Additionally, some observations show a dependence of the observed properties on galaxy type and colour. Our aim in this work is to study the outcome of exploding CO white dwarfs following the evolution of the progenitor intermediate mass stars with different masses and metallicities. Once this influence of the progentitor has been determined, the observations may be corrected. At the present stage of this project we are not able to quantify this effect properly. One result is clear, that the differences at maximum are expected to be small ($\sim$0.2 mag) but this is of the same order as all the evidence for a positive cosmological constant ($\sim$0.25 mag).