Laura Chomiuk (NRAO/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

EVLA Constraints on the Progenitors of Supernovae Type Ia

We present our EVLA search for radio continuum emission from Type Ia supernovae. In the single-degenerate model for these explosions, a white dwarf accretes material from a hydrogen-rich donor star (e.g., red giant). A necessary implication of this model is the production of weak radio emission as the SN blastwave plows through the circum-binary material. Previous radio searches for the signal have been unsuccessful, largely attributed to the fact that the expected emission lay just beyond the VLA's sensitivity. Here, we present recent results from our EVLA program, which utilizes the increased sensitivity to search for the expected signal from SNe Ia. We place our results in the context of other searches for circum-binary material, and discuss the Ia progenitor scenarios that can be ruled out by these observations.