On the maximum mass of magnetised white dwarfs

Understand

We develop a detailed and self-consistent numerical model for extremely-magnetised white dwarfs, which have been proposed as progenitors of overluminous Type Ia supernovae.

• This model can describe fully-consistent equilibria of magnetic stars in axial symmetry, with rotation, general-relativistic effects and realistic equations of state (including electron-ion interactions and taking into account Landau quantisation of electrons due to the magnetic field).
• We study the influence of each of these ingredients onto the white dwarf structure and, in particular, on their maximum mass.
• We perform an extensive stability analysis of such objects, with their highest surface magnetic fields reaching $\sim 10^{13}~G$ (at which point the star adopts a torus-like shape).