High resolution simulations of the head-on collision of white dwarfs

Understand

The direct impact of white dwarfs has been suggested as a plausible channel for type Ia supernovae.

• In spite of their (a priori) rareness, in highly populated globular clusters and in galactic centers, where the amount of white dwarfs is considerable, the rate of violent collisions between two of them might be non-negligible.
• Even more, there are indications that binary white dwarf systems orbited by a third stellar-mass body have an important chance to induce a clean head-on collision.
• Therefore, this scenario represents a source of contamination for the supernova light-curves sample that it is used as standard candles in cosmology, and it deserves further investigation.