Related papers: Sensitivity of 3D Convective Urca Simulations to C…
A proposed setting for thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae is a white dwarf that has gained mass from a companion to the point of carbon ignition in the core. In the early stages of carbon burning, called the simmering phase, energy released…
Type Ia supernovae are bright thermonuclear explosions that are important to numerous areas of astronomy. However, the origins of these events are poorly understood. One proposed setting is that of a near Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf that…
Type Ia supernovae are bright thermonuclear explosions of one or more white dwarf stars. The exact origin and explosion mechanism for these supernovae is still poorly understood. In the near-Chandrasekhar mass progenitor model, a simmering…
The neutron excess at the time of explosion provides a powerful discriminant among models of Type Ia supernovae. Recent calculations of the carbon simmering phase in single degenerate progenitors have disagreed about the final neutron…
One possible fate of an accreting white dwarf is explosion in a type Ia supernova. However, the route to the thermonuclear runaway has always been uncertain owing to the lack of a convective model consistent with the Urca process. We derive…
We introduce two simplified nuclear networks that can be used in hydrostatic carbon burning reactions occurring in white dwarf interiors. They model the relevant nuclear reactions in carbon-oxygen white dwarfs (COWDs) approaching ignition…
Following unstable ignition of carbon, but prior to explosion, a white dwarf (WD) in a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) undergoes a simmering phase. During this time, a central convective region grows and encompasses ~1 Msun of the WD over a…
The onset of the thermonuclear runaway in a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf, leading to the explosion as a type Ia supernova, is studied with hydrodynamical simulations. We investigate the evolution of temperature fluctuations (``bubbles'')…
Consideration of the role of the convective flux in the thermodymics of the convective Urca neutrino loss process in degenerate, convective, quasi-static, carbon-burning cores shows that the convective Urca process slows down the convective…
I have repeatedly grappled with the question of how the convective Urca process affects stellar evolution, in particular during the high-density convective carbon burning that can occur in near-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs. This…
We study the evolution of accreting oxygen-neon (ONe) white dwarfs (WDs), with a particular emphasis on the effects of the presence of the carbon-burning products $\mathrm{^{23}Na}$ and $\mathrm{^{25}Mg}$. These isotopes lead to substantial…
Thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae are bright stellar explosions with the unique property that the light curves can be standardized, allowing them to be used as distance indicators for cosmological studies. Many fundamental questions bout…
The treatment of convection remains a major weakness in the modelling of stellar evolution with one-dimensional (1D) codes. The ever increasing computing power makes now possible to simulate in 3D part of a star for a fraction of its life,…
We derive a new formalism for convective motions involving two radial flows. This formalism provides a framework for convective models that guarantees consistency for the chemistry and the energy budget in the flows, allows time-dependence…
We present the first three-dimensional, full-star simulations of convection in a white dwarf preceding a Type Ia supernova, specifically the last few hours before ignition. For these long-time calculations we use our low Mach number…
Type Ia supernovae have recently received considerable attention because it appears that they can be used as "standard candles" to measure cosmic distances out to billions of light years away from us. Observations of type Ia supernovae seem…
First results of simulations are presented which compute the dynamical evolution of a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf, consisting of equal amounts of carbon and oxygen, from the onset of violent thermonuclear burning, by means of a new…
Pulsating white dwarfs provide constraints to the evolution of progenitor stars. We revise He-burning stellar models, with particular attention to core convection and to its connection with the nuclear reactions powering energy generation…
We perform the first multidimensional fluid simulations of thermonuclear helium ignition underneath a hydrogen-rich shell. This situation is relevant to Type I X-ray bursts on neutron stars that accrete from a hydrogen-rich companion. Using…
Convective overshooting in super asymptotic giant branch stars has been suggested to lead to the formation of hybrid white dwarfs with carbon-oxygen cores and oxygen-neon mantles. As the white dwarf cools, this core-mantle configuration…