scholarly journals Multidimensional Radiative Transfer Calculations of Double Detonations of Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarfs

2021 ◽  
Vol 922 (1) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Ken J. Shen ◽  
Samuel J. Boos ◽  
Dean M. Townsley ◽  
Daniel Kasen

Abstract Study of the double-detonation Type Ia supernova scenario, in which a helium-shell detonation triggers a carbon-core detonation in a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf (WD), has experienced a resurgence in the past decade. New evolutionary scenarios and a better understanding of which nuclear reactions are essential have allowed for successful explosions in WDs with much thinner helium shells than in the original, decades-old incarnation of the double-detonation scenario. In this paper, we present the first suite of light curves and spectra from multidimensional radiative transfer calculations of thin-shell double-detonation models, exploring a range of WD and helium-shell masses. We find broad agreement with the observed light curves and spectra of nonpeculiar Type Ia supernovae, from subluminous to overluminous subtypes, providing evidence that double detonations of sub-Chandrasekhar-mass WDs produce the bulk of observed Type Ia supernovae. Some discrepancies in spectral velocities and colors persist, but these may be brought into agreement by future calculations that include more accurate initial conditions and radiation transport physics.

1994 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
pp. 186-213
Author(s):  
J. Isern ◽  
R. Canal

AbstractIn this paper we review the behavior of growing stellar degenerate cores. It is shown that ONeMg white dwarfs and cold CO white dwarfs can collapse to form a neutron star. This collapse is completely silent since the total amount of radioactive elements that are expelled is very small and a burst of γ-rays is never produced. In the case of an explosion (always carbonoxygen cores), the outcome fits quite well the observed properties of Type Ia supernovae. Nevertheless, the light curves and the velocities measured at maximum are very homogeneous and the diversity introduced by igniting at different densities is not enough to account for the most extreme cases observed. It is also shown that a promising way out of this problem could be the He-induced detonation of white dwarfs with different masses. Finally, we outline that the location of the border line which separetes explosion from collapse strongly depends on the input physics adopted.


2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (4) ◽  
pp. 5617-5624
Author(s):  
Doron Kushnir ◽  
Eli Waxman

ABSTRACT The finite time, τdep, over which positrons from β+ decays of 56Co deposit energy in type Ia supernovae ejecta lead, in case the positrons are trapped, to a slower decay of the bolometric luminosity compared to an exponential decline. Significant light-curve flattening is obtained when the ejecta density drops below the value for which τdep equals the 56Co lifetime. We provide a simple method to accurately describe this ‘delayed deposition’ effect, which is straightforward to use for analysis of observed light curves. We find that the ejecta heating is dominated by delayed deposition typically from 600 to 1200 d, and only later by longer lived isotopes 57Co and 55Fe decay (assuming solar abundance). For the relatively narrow 56Ni velocity distributions of commonly studied explosion models, the modification of the light curve depends mainly on the 56Ni mass-weighted average density, 〈ρ〉t3. Accurate late-time bolometric light curves, which may be obtained with JWST far-infrared (far-IR) measurements, will thus enable to discriminate between explosion models by determining 〈ρ〉t3 (and the 57Co and 55Fe abundances). The flattening of light curves inferred from recent observations, which is uncertain due to the lack of far-IR data, is readily explained by delayed deposition in models with $\langle \rho \rangle t^{3} \approx 0.2\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, (10^{4}\, \textrm{km}\, \textrm{s}^{-1})^{-3}$, and does not imply supersolar 57Co and 55Fe abundances.


2019 ◽  
Vol 492 (2) ◽  
pp. 2029-2043 ◽  
Author(s):  
L J Shingles ◽  
S A Sim ◽  
M Kromer ◽  
K Maguire ◽  
M Bulla ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We extend the range of validity of the artis 3D radiative transfer code up to hundreds of days after explosion, when Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are in their nebular phase. To achieve this, we add a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium population and ionization solver, a new multifrequency radiation field model, and a new atomic data set with forbidden transitions. We treat collisions with non-thermal leptons resulting from nuclear decays to account for their contribution to excitation, ionization, and heating. We validate our method with a variety of tests including comparing our synthetic nebular spectra for the well-known one-dimensional W7 model with the results of other studies. As an illustrative application of the code, we present synthetic nebular spectra for the detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar white dwarf (WD) in which the possible effects of gravitational settling of 22Ne prior to explosion have been explored. Specifically, we compare synthetic nebular spectra for a 1.06 M⊙ WD model obtained when 5.5 Gyr of very efficient settling is assumed to a similar model without settling. We find that this degree of 22Ne settling has only a modest effect on the resulting nebular spectra due to increased 58Ni abundance. Due to the high ionization in sub-Chandrasekhar models, the nebular [Ni ii] emission remains negligible, while the [Ni iii] line strengths are increased and the overall ionization balance is slightly lowered in the model with 22Ne settling. In common with previous studies of sub-Chandrasekhar models at nebular epochs, these models overproduce [Fe iii] emission relative to [Fe ii] in comparison to observations of normal SNe Ia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (2) ◽  
pp. 2221-2235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin D Wilk ◽  
D John Hillier ◽  
Luc Dessart

ABSTRACT In this study, we present one-dimensional, non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium, radiative transfer simulations (using cmfgen) in which we introduce micro-clumping at nebular times into two Type Ia supernova ejecta models. We use one sub-Chandrasekhar (sub-MCh) ejecta model with 1.04 M⊙ and one Chandrasekhar (MCh) ejecta model with 1.40 M⊙. We introduce clumping factors f = 0.33, 0.25, and 0.10, which are constant throughout the ejecta, and compare results to the unclumped f = 1.0 case. We find that clumping is a natural mechanism to reduce the ionization of the ejecta, reducing emission from [Fe iii], [Ar iii], and [S iii] by a factor of a few. For decreasing values of the clumping factor f, the [Ca ii] λλ7291,7324 doublet became a dominant cooling line for our MCh model but remained weak in our sub-MCh model. Strong [Ca ii] λλ7291,7324 indicates non-thermal heating in that region and may constrain explosion modelling. Due to the low abundance of stable nickel, our sub-MCh model never showed the [Ni ii] 1.939-μm diagnostic feature for all clumping values.


2005 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
Peter A. Milne ◽  
G.Grant Williams

SummaryAt late times, the energy deposition in the ejecta of type Ia supernovae is dominated by the slowing of energetic positrons produced in 56Co → 56Fe decays. Through comparisons of simulations of energy deposition in SN Ia models with observed light curves from supernovae, we study the positron transport and thus the magnetic fields of SNe Ia. In this paper, we summarize the current status of these investigations, emphasizing the observations made of two recent SNe Ia, 1999by and 2000cx.


1999 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 68-68
Author(s):  
Koichi Iwamoto ◽  
Ken'Ichi Nomoto

The large luminosity (MV ≈ −19 ∼ −20) and the homogeneity in light curves and spectra of Type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia) have led to their use as distance indicators ultimately to determine the Hubble constant (H0). However, an increasing number of the observed samples from intermediate- and high-z (z ∼ 0.1 − 1) SN Ia survey projects(Hamuy et al. 1996, Perlmutter et al. 1997) have shown that there is a significant dispersion in the maximum brightness (∼ 0.4 mag) and the brighter-slower correlation between the brightness and the postmaximum decline rate, which was first pointed out by Phillips(1993). By taking the correlation into account, Hamuy et al.(1996) gave an estimate of H0 within the error bars half as much as previous ones.


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