Progenitors of SNe Ia — Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae

The nature of the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) has remained unclear though SNe Ia play a vital role in many areas of modern astrophysics. Numerous progenitor models have been proposed in the past, including the single-degenerate (SD) model, the double-degenerate (DD) model, the sub-Chandrasekhar mass model, and quite a few variants of these. The progenitor debate has remained heated in recent years as new observations, new explosion simulations and new supernova models have provided a wealth of new, sometimes contradictory constraints; different population synthesis models also make different predictions, although - with standard assumptions - they generally do not produce the required rates in either the Chandrasekhar-mass SD or DD model. On the other hand, there has been doubt whether sub-Chandrasekhar models can reproduce the observed properties of the majority of SN Ia explosions. Different observational constraints seem to favour different progenitor models. This conference is held to deepen our understanding of the progenitors of SNe Ia, to elucidate the connection between the progenitors and the observed properties of SNe Ia and their remnants and to provide a pathway of how to ultimately resolve the debate.