Rotation of surviving companion stars after type Ia supernova explosions in the WD+MS scenario

¹ National Astronomical Observatories/Yunnan Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650011 PR China
e-mail: zwliu@ynao.ac.cn
² Key Laboratory for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650011, PR China
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
⁴ Max-Planck-Institute für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
⁵ Heidelberger Institut für Theoretische Studien, Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany
⁶ Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
⁷ Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Cotter Road, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia
⁸ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada

Received: 13 December 2012
Accepted: 5 March 2013

Abstract

Context. In the single-degenerate (SD) scenario of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) the non-degenerate companion star survives the supernova (SN) explosion and thus should be visible near the center of the SN remnant and may show some unusual features. Therefore, a promising approach to test progenitor models of SNe Ia is to search for the companion star in historical SN remnants.

Aims. Here we present the results of three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamics simulations of the interaction between the SN Ia blast wave and a main-sequence companion taking into consideration its orbital motion and spin. The primary goal of this work is to investigate the rotation of surviving companion stars after SN Ia explosions in the WD+MS scenario.

Methods. We used Eggleton’s stellar evolution code including the optically thick accretion wind model to obtain realistic models of companion stars. The impact of the supernova blast wave on these companion stars was followed in 3D hydrodynamic simulations employing the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code GADGET3.

Results. We find that the rotation of the companion star does not significantly affect the amount of stripped mass and the kick velocity caused by the SN impact. However, in our simulations, the rotational velocity of the companion star is significantly reduced to about 14% to 32% of its pre-explosion value due to the expansion of the companion and because 55%−89% of the initial angular momentum is carried away by the stripped matter.

Conclusions. Compared with the observed rotational velocity of the presumed companion star of Tycho’s supernova, Tycho G, of  ~6 km s^-1, the final rotational velocity we obtain in our simulations is still higher by at least a factor of two. Whether this difference is significant and may cast doubts on the suggestion that Tycho G is the companion of SN 1572 has to be investigated in future studies. Based on binary population synthesis results, we present for the first time the expected distribution of rotational velocities of companion stars after the SN explosion, which may provide useful information for the identification of the surviving companion in observational searches in other historical SN remnants.