Related papers: Simulating the Convective Urca Process with Multip…
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…
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…
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. There is a simmering phase in the early stages of burning that involves the…
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…
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…
In accreting WDs approaching the Chandrasekhar limit, hydrostatic carbon burning precedes the dynamical breakout. During this \textit{simmering} phase, $e-$captures are energetically favored in the central region of the star, while…
When carbon is ignited off-centre in a CO core of a super-AGB star, its burning in a convective shell tends to propagate to the centre. Whether the C flame will actually be able to reach the centre depends on the efficiency of extra mixing…
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…
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…
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'')…
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 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…
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…
When carbon is ignited off-center in a CO core of a super-AGB star, its burning in a convective shell tends to propagate to the center. Whether the C flame will actually be able to reach the center depends on the efficiency of extra mixing…
The creation of "hybrid" white dwarfs, made of a C-O core within a O-Ne shell has been proposed, and studies indicate that ignition in the C-rich central region makes these viable progenitors for thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae. Recent…
When a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) progenitor first ignites carbon in its core, it undergoes ${\sim} \,10^{3}-10^{4} \,$yr of convective burning prior to the onset of thermonuclear runaway. This carbon simmering phase is important for setting…
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…
Prior to the incineration of a white dwarf (WD) that makes a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), the star "simmers" for ~1000 years in a convecting, carbon burning region. We have found that weak interactions during this time increase the neutron…
The thermonuclear runaway that culminates in the explosion of a Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf as a Type Ia supernova begins centuries before the star actually explodes. Here, using a 3D anelastic code, we examine numerically the convective…