Related papers: Carbon Ignition in Type Ia Supernovae: II. A Three…
Thermonuclear supernovae result when interaction with a companion reignites nuclear fusion in a carbon-oxygen white dwarf, causing a thermonuclear runaway, a catastrophic gain in pressure, and the disintegration of the whole white dwarf. It…
Type Ia supernovae are generally agreed to arise from thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs. The actual path to explosion, however, remains elusive, with numerous plausible parent systems and explosion mechanisms suggested.…
Type Ia supernovae are bright stellar explosions distinguished by standardizable light curves that allow for their use as distance indicators for cosmological studies. Despite their highly successful use in this capacity, the progenitors of…
Type Ia supernovae result when carbon-oxygen white dwarfs in binary systems accrete mass from companion stars, reach a critical mass, and explode. The near uniformity of their light curves makes these supernovae good standard candles for…
Type Ia supernovae are thought to result from thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarf stars. This model generally explains the observed properties with certain exceptions, like sub-luminous supernovae. Here we discuss the…
We propose a simple model for the bolometric light curve of type Ia supernova exploding in a dense circumstellar (CS) envelope to describe the light curves of supernovae 2002ic and 1997cy. The modeling shows that at the radius…
We present a new mechanism for Type Ia supernova explosions in massive white dwarfs. The proposed scenario follows from relaxing the assumption of symmetry in the model and involves a detonation created in an unconfined environment. The…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) arise from the thermonuclear explosion of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs. Though the uniformity of their light curves makes them powerful cosmological distance indicators, long-standing issues remain regarding their…
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…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are thought to be thermonuclear explosion of white dwarfs (WDs). Their progenitors are not well understood. One popular scenario is the double-degenerate (DD) scenario, which attributes SNe Ia to WD-WD binary…
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…
Observations of Type Ia supernovae (SN~Ia) combined with modeling of dynamics, light curves and spectra continue to point to the difficult conclusion that SN~Ia result from degenerate ignition in a carbon/oxygen white dwarf of the…
The experimental determination of the cross-section of the ^{12}C+^{12}C reaction has never been made at astrophysically relevant energies (E<2 MeV). The profusion of resonances throughout the measured energy range has led to speculation…
Type Ia supernovae are exploding stars that are used to measure the accelerated expansion of the Universe and are responsible for most of the iron ever produced. Although there is general agreement that the exploding star is a white dwarf…
Type Ia supernovae arise from thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs accreting from a binary companion. Following the explosion, the surviving donor star leaves at roughly its orbital velocity. The discovery of the runaway helium subdwarf…
Thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae are explosions in accreting white dwarfs, but the exact scenario leading to these explosions is still unclear. An important step to clarify this point is to understand the behaviour of accreting white…
2002cx-like supernovae are a sub-class of sub-luminous Type Ia supernovae. Their light curves and spectra are characterized by distinct features that indicate strong mixing of the explosion ejecta. Pure turbulent deflagrations have been…
Prior to the explosive burning of a white dwarf (WD) that makes a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia), the star "simmers" for ~10^3 yrs in a convecting, carbon burning region. I estimate the excitation of g-modes by convection during this phase and…
Type Ia supernovae have become an indispensable tool for studying the expansion history of the universe, yet our understanding of the explosion mechanism is still incomplete. We describe the variety of discussed scenarios, sketch the most…
The mode of explosive burning in Type Ia SNe remains an outstanding problem. It is generally thought to begin as a subsonic deflagration, but this may transition into a supersonic detonation (the DDT). We argue that this transition leads to…