Related papers: White Dwarf Bounds on CHAMPs
White dwarfs (WDs) embedded in gaseous disks of active galactic nucleus (AGNs) can rapidly accrete materials from the disks and grow in mass to reach or even exceed the Chandrasekhar limit. Binary WD (BWD) mergers are also believed to occur…
The transit of primordial black holes through a white dwarf causes localized heating around the trajectory of the black hole through dynamical friction. For sufficiently massive black holes, this heat can initiate runaway thermonuclear…
White dwarfs (WDs) can be tidally disrupted only by massive black holes (MBHs) with masses less than $\sim10^5 M_\odot$. These tidal interactions feed material to the MBH well above its Eddington limit, with the potential to launch a…
Dark matter that is capable of sufficiently heating a local region in a white dwarf will trigger runaway fusion and ignite a type Ia supernova. This was originally proposed in Graham et al. (2015) and used to constrain primordial black…
It was recently demonstrated that asymmetric dark matter can ignite supernovae by collecting and collapsing inside lone sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs, and that this may be the cause of Type Ia supernovae. A ball of asymmetric dark…
We study the evolution and final outcome of long-lived (${\approx}10^5$ years) remnants from the merger of a He white dwarf (WD) with a more massive C/O or O/Ne WD. Using Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics ($\texttt{MESA}$), we…
Numerical and observational evidence suggests that massive white dwarfs dominate the innermost regions of core-collapsed globular clusters by both number and total mass. Using NGC 6397 as a test case, we constrain the features of white…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) can be accelerated by tidal disruption events of stars by black holes. We suggest a novel mechanism for UHECR acceleration wherein white dwarfs (WDs) are tidally compressed by intermediate-mass black…
We present a large parameter study where we investigate the structure of white dwarf (WD) merger remnants after the dynamical phase. A wide range of WD masses and compositions are explored and we also probe the effect of different initial…
White dwarfs accreting from helium stars can stably burn at the accreted rate and avoid the challenge of mass loss associated with unstable Helium burning that is a concern for many Type Ia supernovae scenarios. We study binaries with…
We show that a star orbiting close enough to an adiabatically grown supermassive black hole can capture a large number of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) during its lifetime. WIMP annihilation energy release in low- to…
Recent surveys have discovered a population of faint supernovae, known as Ca-rich gap transients, inferred to originate from explosive ignitions of white dwarfs. In addition to their unique spectra and luminosities, these supernovae have an…
We examine the chemical abundance constraints on a population of white dwarfs in the Halo of our Galaxy. We are motivated by microlensing evidence for massive compact halo objects (Machos) in the Galactic Halo, but our work constrains white…
It is shown that primordial black holes (PBHs) of masses M > 5x10^14 g are able to absorb white dwarfs (WD) completely for the time of their existence, giving rise to formation of black holes of WD mases. The WD absorption is accompanied by…
The astrophysical origins of the heaviest stable elements that we observe today in the Solar System are still not fully understood. Recent studies have demonstrated that H-accreting white dwarfs (WDs) in a binary sys- tem exploding as type…
We present a qualitative picture of prompt emission from tidal disruptions of white dwarfs (WD) by intermediate mass black holes (IMBH). The smaller size of an IMBH compared to a supermassive black hole and a smaller tidal radius of a WD…
White dwarfs (WDs) are believed to detonate via explosive Carbon-fusion in a Type Ia Supernova when their temperature and/or density reach the point where Carbon is ignited in a runaway reaction. Observations of the Type Ia supernova (SN)…
A white dwarf (WD) captured into a high-eccentricity orbit around a massive black hole (MBH) may undergo many pericenter passages before tidal disruption. During these passages, the tidal potential of the MBH excites internal oscillations…
Mergers of binaries comprised of compact objects can give rise to explosive transient events, heralding the birth of exotic objects which cannot be formed through single star evolution. Using a large number of direct N-body simulations, we…
A hybrid C/O/Ne white dwarf (WD) -- an unburned C/O core surrounded by an O/Ne/Na mantle -- can be formed if the carbon flame is quenched in a super-AGB (SAGB) star or white dwarf merger remnant. We show that this segregated hybrid…