We know the mass a white dwarf needs to be. That's well defined by the Chandrasekhar limit, but before a main sequence star turns into a white dwarf it tends to lose a fair bit of its matter in a stellar nebula.
According to this site, the white dwarf that remains is about half the mass of the main sequence star, with larger stars losing a bit more.
So, the question: Is it correct to say that a star with a mass of about three solar masses will eventually go supernova, similar to a type 1 supernova, even when it's not part of a binary system? Has that kind of supernova ever been observed?
Or does something else happen like in the final stages of that star? Does it keeps going though collapse and expand cycles, losing enough mass that when it finally becomes a white dwarf it's below the Chandrasekhar limit in mass?
Mostly, what I've read on supernovae says that type 1 supernovae happen when a white dwarf accretes extra matter and reaches the limit and type 2 supernovae are much larger and require about 8-11 solar masses to generate the iron core which triggers the supernova. What happens with the death of the star between three solar masses and eight solar masses?
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