High-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae Exhibit Enhanced Calcium Abundances

Abstract

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are major contributors to cosmic chemical enrichment, and their elemental abundances provide a probe of progenitor properties and explosion physics across cosmic time. We employ an artificial intelligence-assisted inversion technique to analyze spectra of high-redshift SNe Ia from the Supernova Legacy Survey and of gravitationally lensed SNe Ia observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, extending the sample to redshift 2.05. We find a positive correlation between SN Ia calcium abundance and redshift. The redshift-dependent variation in calcium abundance exceeds that predicted by SN Ia nucleosynthesis simulations with varying progenitor metallicities, suggesting that high-redshift SNe Ia may undergo different explosion mechanisms from nearby SNe Ia.