Detonations in Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass C+O White Dwarfs

Understand

Explosions of sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs are one alternative to the standard Chandrasekhar-mass model of Type Ia supernovae.

• They are interesting since binary systems with sub-Chandrasekhar-mass primary white dwarfs should be common and this scenario would suggest a simple physical parameter which determines the explosion brightness, namely the mass of the exploding white dwarf.
• Here we perform one-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations, associated post-processing nucleosynthesis and multi-wavelength radiation transport calculations for pure detonations of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs.
• The light curves and spectra we obtain from these simulations are in good agreement with observed properties of Type Ia supernovae.