Related papers: Surface detonation in type Ia supernova explosions…
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…
In the framework of the Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf model for Type Ia supernovae, various stages of the explosion are described in terms of the burning regimes of the thermonuclear flame front. In the early flamelet regime following the…
One method of discriminating between the many Type Ia progenitor scenarios is by searching for contaminating hydrogen and helium stripped from the companion star. We present several high-resolution 2-D numerical simulations of the impact of…
Merging white dwarfs are a possible progenitor of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). While it is not entirely clear if and when an explosion is triggered in such systems, numerical models suggest that a detonation might be initiated before the…
The progenitor systems and explosion mechanism of Type Ia supernovae are still unknown. Currently favoured progenitors include double-degenerate systems consisting of two carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with thin helium shells. In the…
Several explosions of thermonuclear supernovae (SNe Ia) have been found to exhibit deviations from spherical symmetry upon closer inspection. Examples are the gamma-ray lines from SN 2014J as measured by INTEGRAL/SPI, and morphology…
We study the gravitationally confined detonation (GCD) model of Type Ia supernovae through the detonation phase and into homologous expansion. In the GCD model, a detonation is triggered by the surface flow due to single point, off-center…
The observed sub-class of "superluminous" Type Ia supernovae lacks a convincing theoretical explanation. If the emission of such objects were powered exclusively by radioactive decay of 56Ni formed in the explosion, a progenitor mass close…
We present a systematic study of the diversity of three-dimensional deflagration simulations of Type Ia supernova explosions arising from variations of the initial parameters. By altering the carbon mass fraction, the central density, and…
The influence of the initial composition and structure of the exploding white dwarf on the nucleosynthesis and structure of Type Ia Supernovae has been studied. The progenitor structures are based on detailed stellar evolutionary tracks for…
Although Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are a major tool in cosmology and play a key role in the chemical evolution of galaxies, the nature of their progenitor systems (apart from the fact that they must contain at least one white dwarf, that…
We present a systematic survey of the capabilities of type Ia supernova explosion models starting from a number of flame seeds distributed around the center of the white dwarf star. To this end we greatly improved the resolution of the…
The merger of two white dwarfs (WDs) has for many years not been considered as the favoured model for the progenitor system of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). But recent years have seen a change of opinion as a number of studies, both…
The flame born in the deep interior of a white dwarf that becomes a Type Ia supernova is subject to several instabilities. We briefly review these instabilities and the corresponding flame acceleration. We discuss the conditions necessary…
We set up and perform collision rate simulations between dark matter in the form of asteroid-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) and white dwarf stars. These encounters trigger prompt detonations and could be the key to solving the ignition…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are believed to be caused by the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf (WD), but the nature of the progenitor system(s) is still unclear. Recent theoretical and observational developments have led to renewed…
The progenitor channel responsible for the majority of Type Ia supernovae is still uncertain. One emergent scenario involves the detonation of a He-rich layer surrounding a C/O white dwarf, which sends a shock wave into the core. The…
We present the results of a systematic numerical study of an alternative progenitor scenario to produce type Ia supernova explosions, which is not restricted to the ignition of a CO white dwarf near the Chandrasekhar mass. In this scenario,…
The details of ignition of Type Ia supernovae remain fuzzy, despite the importance of this input for any large-scale model of the final explosion. Here, we begin a process of understanding the ignition of these hotspots by examining the…
Type Ia supernovae are destructive explosions of carbon oxygen white dwarfs. Although they are used empirically to measure cosmological distances, the nature of their progenitors remains mysterious, One of the leading progenitor models,…