Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) are the most important standard candles for measuring the expansion history of the universe. The thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf can explain their observed properties, but neither the progenitor systems nor any stellar remnants have been conclusively identified. Underluminous SN Ia have been proposed to originate from a so-called double-detonation of a white dwarf. After a critical amount of helium is deposited on the surface through accretion from a close companion, the helium is ignited causing a detonation wave that triggers the explosion of the white dwarf itself. We have discovered both shallow transits and eclipses in the tight binary system CD-30 • 11223 composed of a carbon/oxygen white dwarf and a hot helium star, allowing us to determine its component masses and fundamental parameters. In the future the system will transfer mass from the helium star to the white dwarf. Modelling this process we find that the detonation in the accreted helium layer is sufficiently strong to trigger the explosion of the core. The helium star will then be ejected at such high velocity that it will escape the Galaxy. The predicted properties of this remnant are an excellent match to the so-called hypervelocity star US 708, a hot, helium-rich star moving at more than 750 km s −1 , sufficient for it to leave the Galaxy. The identification of both progenitor and remnant provides a consistent picture of the formation and evolution of underluminous SNIa.

Context. Subdwarf B stars (sdB) are important to stellar evolutionary theory and asteroseismology, and they are crucial to our understanding of the structure and evolution of the Galaxy. According to the canonical binary scenario, the majority of sdBs are produced from low-mass stars with degenerate cores where helium is ignited in a way of flashes. Owing to numerical difficulties, the models of produced sdBs are generally constructed from more massive stars with non-degenerate cores. This leaves several uncertainties on the exact characteristics of sdB stars. Aims. The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of sdBs produced from the common envelope (CE) ejection channel. Methods. We used the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), which can resolve flashes during stellar evolution. To mimic the CE ejection process, we first evolved a single star to a position near the tip of the red giant branch, then artificially removed its envelope with a very high mass-loss rate until the envelope began to shrink. Finally, we followed the evolution of the remnant until it became a helium or a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. Results. The sdB stars produced from the CE ejection channel appear to form two distinct groups on the effective temperature-gravity diagram. One group, referred to as the flash-mixing sdBs, almost has no H-rich envelope and crowds at the hottest temperature end of the extreme horizontal branch (EHB), while the other group, called the canonical sdBs, has significant H-rich envelope and is spread throughout the entire canonical EHB region. The key factor for the dichotomy of the sdB properties is the development of convection during the first helium flash, that is, that the convection region penetrates the H-rich envelope in the case of the flash-mixing sdBs, but fails to do this in the case of the canonical sdBs. Conclusions. The dichotomy of the sdB properties from the CE ejection channel is intrinsic and caused by the interior structure of the star after the CE ejection. The modelling of the CE ejection process will greatly change the parameter space for the two typical groups of sdB stars. If the CE ejection stops early for a given initial stellar mass and a given core mass at the onset of the CE, then the star has a relatively massive H-rich envelope, which generally results in a canonical sdB. Observationally, only a few sdB binaries with short orbital periods are located in the flash-mixing sdB region, and there is a lack of He-rich sdBs in binaries with short orbital periods. This indicates that flash mixing is not very frequent in products of the CE ejection. A falling-back process after the CE ejection, similar to what occurs in nova, is an appropriate way of increasing the envelope mass, and it then prevents flash mixing.