Related papers: Element mixing in the Cassiopeia A supernova
X-ray observations have shown that the chemical abundance in the starburst galaxy M82 is quite rich in Si and S compared with oxygen. Such an abundance pattern cannot be explained with any combination of conventional Type I and II supernova…
The fragile light elements lithium, beryllium, and boron are easily destroyed in stellar interiors, and are thus superb probes of physical processes occuring in the outer stellar layers. The light elements are also excellent tracers of the…
Nanostructured solid boron-hydrogen compounds have been suggested as target and fuel for laser fusion, offering improved laser-plasma coupling, avoiding cryogenic fuel handling and fuel pre-compression and ultimately allowing a transit from…
In explaining the relative metal abundances observed in galaxy groups and clusters, it is generally assumed that all metals created by supernovae are present either in visible stars or the hot gas. We discuss here the possibility that some…
The abundances of mixing--sensitive elements including lithium, [C/N], and 12C/13C are known to change near the red giant branch bump. The explanation most often offered for these alterations is double diffusive thermohaline mixing in the…
Supernovae provide fascinating opportunities to study various particles and their interactions. Among these there are neutrinos, axions, and other light weakly interacting particles, which play a significant role in our understanding of…
The origin of the jet-like structures observed in Cassiopeia A is still unclear, although it seems to be related to its explosion mechanism. X-ray observations of the characteristic structures could provide us useful information on the…
Recent multi-dimensional simulations suggest that high-entropy buoyant plumes help massive stars to explode. Outwardly protruding iron-rich fingers in the galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A are uniquely suggestive of this picture.…
Motivated by unexplained observations of low sulphur abundances in planetary nebulae (PNe) and the PG1159 class of post asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, we investigate the possibility that sulphur may be destroyed by nucleosynthetic…
Supernova explosions of massive stars are one of the primary sites for the production of the elements in the universe. Up to now, stars with zero-age main-sequence masses in the range of 35--50~$M_\odot$ had mostly been representing the…
Type Ia supernovae, the thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars composed of carbon and oxygen, were instrumental as distance indicators in establishing the acceleration of the universe's expansion. However, the physics of the…
The role of a resonant $\nu_e$-$\nu_s$ oscillation is discussed in the event of a supernova explosion. It is concluded that a significant $\nu_e$-$\nu_s$ mixing may hinder the ability of the supernova to explode. It may also cool the…
We consider a small sample of oxygen-rich, asymptotic giant branch stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, exhibiting a peculiar spectral energy distribution, which can be hardly explained by the common…
Axion-photon mixing has been proposed as an alternative to acceleration as the explanation for supernovae dimming. We point out that the loss of photons due to this mixing will induce a strong asymmetry between the luminosity, d_L(z), and…
A summary is given of planetary nebulae abundances from ISO measurements. It is shown that these nebulae show abundance gradients (with galactocentric distance), which in the case of neon, argon, sulfur and oxygen (with four exceptions) are…
Galactic Bulge Planetary Nebulae show evidence of mixed chemistry with emission from both silicate dust and PAHs. This mixed chemistry is unlikely to be related to carbon dredge up, as third dredge-up is not expected to occur in the low…
We present a Spitzer Space Telescope spectroscopic study of a sample of 25 planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds. The low-resolution modules are used to analyze the dust features present in the infrared spectra. This study complements…
The death of massive stars is believed to involve aspheric explosions initiated by the collapse of an iron core. The specifics of how these catastrophic explosions proceed remain uncertain due, in part, to limited observational constraints…
Observational evidence suggests that some very massive stars in the local Universe may die as pair-instability supernovae. We present 2D simulations of the pair-instability supernova of a non-zero metallicity star. We find that very little…
Hydrodynamics and explosive nucleosynthesis in bipolar supernova explosions are examined to account for some peculiar properties of hypernovae as well as peculiar abundance patterns of metal-poor stars. The explosion is supposed to be…