Nuclear fission chain reaction in cooling white dwarf stars
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
2021-07-09 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Nuclear Theory
Abstract
The first solids that form as a white dwarf (WD) starts to crystallize are expected to be greatly enriched in actinides. Previously [PRL 126, 1311010] we found that these solids might support a nuclear fission chain reaction that could ignite carbon burning and provide a new Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) mechanism involving an {\it isolated} WD. Here we explore this fission mechanism in more detail and calculate the final temperature and density after the chain reaction and discuss a number of open physics questions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2107.03568,
title = {Nuclear fission chain reaction in cooling white dwarf stars},
author = {C. J. Horowitz and M. E. Caplan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.03568},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
8 pages, 4 figures