Related papers: Thermonuclear Supernovae: Simulations of the Defla…
The thermonuclear explosion of a massive white dwarf in a Type Ia supernova explosion is characterized by vastly disparate spatial and temporal scales. The extreme dynamic range inherent to the problem prevents the use of direct numerical…
Type Ia supernovae are associated with thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars. Combustion processes convert material in nuclear reactions and release the energy required to explode the stars. At the same time, they produce the…
A Type Ia supernova explosion likely begins as a nuclear runaway near the center of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. The outward propagating flame is unstable to the Landau-Darrieus, Rayleigh-Taylor, and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, which…
Although delayed detonation models of thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs seem promising for reproducing Type Ia supernovae, the transition of the flame propagation mode from subsonic deflagration to supersonic detonation remains…
We study a type Ia supernova explosion using three-dimensional numerical simulations based on reactive fluid dynamics. We consider a delayed-detonation model that assumes a deflagration-to-detonation transition. In contrast to the pure…
We explore the evolution of thermonuclear supernova explosions when the progenitor white dwarf star ignites asymmetrically off-center. Several numerical simulations are carried out in two and three dimensions to test the consequences of…
Turbulent combustion is three-dimensional. Turbulence in a Type Ia supernova is driven on large scales by the buoyancy of burning products. The turbulent cascade penetrates down to very small scales, and makes the rate of deflagration…
Aims: We present the first full-star three-dimensional explosion simulations of thermonuclear supernovae including parameterized deflagration-to-detonation transitions that occur once the flame enters the distributed burning regime.…
We study a Type Ia supernova explosion using large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulations based on reactive fluid dynamics with a simplified mechanism for nuclear reactions and energy release. The initial deflagration stage of the…
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…
In recent years, it has become clear from multidimensional simulations that the outcome of deflagrations depends strongly on the initial configuration of the flame. We have studied under which conditions this configuration could consist of…
Flame instabilities play a dominant role in accelerating the burning front to a large fraction of the speed of sound in a Type Ia supernova. We present a three-dimensional numerical simulation of a Rayleigh-Taylor unstable carbon flame,…
Fresh insights and powerful numerical tools are revitalizing the theoretical exploration of the supernova mechanism. The realization that the protoneutron star is Rayleigh-Taylor unstable at various times and radii and, hence, that a…
The propagation of cellularly stabilized thermonuclear flames is investigated by means of numerical simulations. In Type Ia supernova explosions the corresponding burning regime establishes at scales below the Gibson length. The cellular…
We investigate thermonuclear explosions within the delayed detonation framework. While spherical delayed detonation models generally reproduce key observational features, a fundamental inconsistency emerges in three dimensions: 3D…
We present the first high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of the deflagration phase of Type Ia supernovae that treat the entire massive white dwarf. We report the results of simulations in which ignition of the nuclear burning…
Supernovae of type Ia are thought to arise from the thermonuclear incineration of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf stellar remnant. However, the detailed explosion scenario and stellar evolutionary origin scenario -- or scenarios -- which lead…
We develop an improved method for tracking the nuclear flame during the deflagration phase of a Type Ia supernova, and apply it to study the variation in outcomes expected from the gravitationally confined detonation (GCD) paradigm. A…
The application of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as distance indicators in cosmology calls for a sound understanding of these objects. Recent years have seen a brisk development of astrophysical models which explain SNe Ia as thermonuclear…
We consider the competition of the different physical processes that can affect the evolution of a flame bubble in a Type Ia supernovae -- burning, turbulence and buoyancy. Even in the vigorously turbulent conditions of a convecting white…