Spiral instability can drive thermonuclear explosions in binary white dwarf mergers

Thermonuclear, or Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), originate from the explosion of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs, and serve as standardizable cosmological candles. However, despite their importance, the nature of the progenitor systems that give rise to SNe Ia has not been hitherto elucidated. Observationa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: kashyap, Rahul, Fisher, Robert T., García-Berro Montilla, Enrique|||0000-0002-1623-5838, Aznar Siguan, Gabriela, Ji, Suoqing, Lorén Aguilar, Pablo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/28120
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/28120
https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/800/1/L7
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Hydrodyanamics
White dwarf stars
Supernovae
hydrodynamics
supernovae: general
white dwarfs
ECCENTRIC GRAVITATIONAL INSTABILITIES
IA SUPERNOVAE
COLLISIONS
DETONATIONS
SIMULATIONS
PROGENITORS
EVOLUTION
REMNANTS
DISKS
END
Estels nans
Supernoves
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Física::Astronomia i astrofísica
Descripción
Sumario:Thermonuclear, or Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), originate from the explosion of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs, and serve as standardizable cosmological candles. However, despite their importance, the nature of the progenitor systems that give rise to SNe Ia has not been hitherto elucidated. Observational evidence favors the double-degenerate channel in which merging white dwarf binaries lead to SNe Ia. Furthermore, significant discrepancies exist between observations and theory, and to date, there has been no self-consistent merger model that yields a SNe Ia. Here we show that a spiral mode instability in the accretion disk formed during a binary white dwarf merger leads to a detonation on a dynamical timescale. This mechanism sheds light on how white dwarf mergers may frequently yield SNe Ia.