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Type Ia supernovae are quite important in different fields of astrophysics; for example as distance indicators in Cosmology, as nucleosynthesis sources for Chemical Evolution, or as Tevatrons for cosmic-rays. Many questions surrounding their progenitors and their explosion mechanisms however remain unanswered. In my talk, I will first summarise a modelling workflow (the "pipeline") that connects rapid binary evolution progenitor models to supernova observables, via supernova explosion and nucleosynthesis simulations. I will then sketch how we can use model-specific nucleosynthetic signatures of different explosion models to make inferences about what kind of white dwarfs explode as Type Ia supernovae. This includes population arguments based on the galactic chemical evolution of iron group elements such as manganese, as well as inferences on individual supernovae from the signatures long-lived radioactive isotopes leave in their late-time light curves. I will conclude with some recent updates on the discovery of the optical emission of the shocked ejecta in young Type Ia supernova remnants. |
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