Esha Kundu (Curtin University)

Esha Kundu Colloquium: Radio emission from SNe Ia

Marsfield lecture theatre

Abstract

It is widely accepted that Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), the standard candles in cosmology, are the thermonuclear explosion of carbon/oxygen white dwarfs. Despite their huge cosmological and galactochemical importance, the nature of their progenitors is not yet known clearly. An indirect way to investigate the pre-SN systems is to look for radio emission from the interaction of SN ejecta with the circumstellar medium (CSM). The flux of radio emission is roughly proportional to the density of the particle in the ambient medium, which, in general, is shaped by the winds from the progenitor star. Therefore, by studying this radiation one can map the mass-loss history of the pre-SN star. In this talk, I will discuss how radio emission has enabled us to constrain the CSM density around SNe Ia, and hence the nature of their progenitor systems.