Type Ia Supernovae and the Uncertainties in their Progenitor Evolution

We use binary population synthesis to study the main proposed channels leading to Type Ia supernovae, the single degenerate channel (SD) and double degenerate channel (DD). For this purpose, we discuss the progenitor evolution and the influence of the common envelope efficiency, α_ce, on the rate of the different channels. Our study demonstrates the large α_ce-dependence of both channels, especially for the SD channel.