Related papers: Direct evidence for shock-powered optical emission…
Stellar explosions such as novae and supernovae produce most of the heavy elements in the Universe. Although the onset of novae from runaway thermonuclear fusion reactions on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary star system is…
A classical nova occurs when material accreting onto the surface of a white dwarf in a close binary system ignites in a thermonuclear runaway. Complex structures observed in the ejecta at late stages could result from interactions with the…
Classical novae are shock-powered multi-wavelength transients triggered by a thermonuclear runaway on an accreting white dwarf. V1674 Her is the fastest nova ever recorded (time to declined by two magnitudes is t_2=1.1 d) that challenges…
The mechanism of classical novae explosions is explained, together with some of their observational properties. The scarce but not null impact of novae in the chemical evolution of the Milky Way is analyzed, as well as their relevance for…
There is a wide consensus in the astrophysics community that the mechanism underlying the observed Classical Nova eruptions is a surface thermonuclear runaway. We start this short review with the main observational facts that lead to the…
Classical novae are explosive phenomena that take place in stellar binary systems. They are powered by mass transfer from a low-mass, main sequence star onto a white dwarf. The material piles up under degenerate conditions and a…
Classical novae produce radioactive nuclei which are emitters of gamma-rays in the MeV range. Some examples are the lines at 478 and 1275 keV (from 7Be and 22Na) and the positron-electron annihilation emission, with the 511 keV line and a…
The physical mechanism driving mass ejection during a nova eruption is still poorly understood. Possibilities include ejection in a single ballistic event, a common envelope interaction, a continuous wind, or some combination of these…
A supra-massive neutron star (NS) spinning extremely rapidly could survive from a merger of NS-NS binary. The spin-down of this remnant NS that is highly magnetized would power the isotropic merger ejecta to produce a bright mergernova…
Classical novae occur on the surface of an accreting white dwarf in a binary system. After ejection of a fraction of the envelope and when the expanding shell becomes optically thin to X-rays, a bright source of supersoft X-rays arises,…
Luminous red novae (LRN) are a class of optical transients believed to originate from the mergers of binary stars, or "common envelope" events. Their light curves often show secondary maxima, which cannot be explained in the previous models…
Shocks in gamma-ray emitting classical novae are expected to produce bright thermal and non-thermal X-rays. We test this prediction with simultaneous NuSTAR and Fermi/LAT observations of nova V906 Car, which exhibited the brightest GeV…
We present a parameterized ("toy") model for shock interaction and $\gamma$-ray emission in classical novae, in which a white dwarf envelope of mass $M_{\rm env}$ is removed over a timescale $\tau$ (proportional to the nova speed class,…
Classical novae produce radioactive nuclei which are emitters of gamma-rays in the MeV range. Some examples are the lines at 478 and 1275 keV (from 7Be and 22Na) and the positron-electron annihilation emission (511 keV line and a continuum…
Nova outbursts are the result of strong thermonuclear runaways on the surface of a white dwarf accreting Hydrogen-rich material from a small mass companion. These giant explosions cause the star to increase its brightness by hundreds of…
Type Ia supernovae are thought to be the outcome of the thermonuclear explosion of a carbon/oxygen white dwarf in a close binary system. Their optical light curve is powered by thermalized gamma-rays produced by the radioactive decay of…
Early light curves of many core-collapse supernovae (SNe) are thought to be powered by the interaction of the shock wave with optically thick extended material, either a bound envelope or preexplosion ejected circumstellar matter (CSM). We…
Classical novae are stellar explosions occurring in binary systems, consisting of a white dwarf and a main sequence companion. Thermonuclear runaways on the surface of massive white dwarfs, consisting of oxygen and neon, are believed to…
Cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) are close binary systems consisting of a white dwarf (primary) that is accreting matter from a low-mass companion star (secondary). From time to time such systems undergo large-amplitude brightenings. The…
For several novae, a bright X-ray source with a spectrum resembling the class of Super Soft X-ray Sources (SSS) has been observed a few weeks to months after outburst. Novae are powered by explosive nuclear burning on the surface of a white…