On the Road to Consistent Type Ia Supernova Explosion Models

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Despite the importance of SNe Ia for many fields of astrophysics and cosmology, a fully consistent description of the explosion mechanism is still lacking. However, several ideas exist and the interplay of modeling and observation has helped to shape a picture of the thermonuclear explosions of the progenitor C+O white dwarfs. The signature of intermediate mass elements in the spectra is an indication that the thermonuclear flame has to start out subsonically after its ignition near the center of the white dwarf. Since laminar flame propagation is far too slow to explode the star, flame acceleration is the key issue of all models. The subsonic deflagration flame is subject to buoyancy and shear instabilities and strong turbulence is expected to be generated. The interaction of the flame propagation with turbulence provides an efficient way of accelerating its propagation. This phenomenon has been studied in detail in the past years in elaborate three-dimensional numerical simulations. In these, explosions were found that seem capable of reproducing the gross features of some observed SNe Ia. However, it seems unlikely that the turbulent deflagration model can cover the full parameter space. The ultimate way of accelerating the thermonuclear burning would be a transition of the deflagration flame propagation mode to a supersonic detonation. Although the physical mechanism of such a transition remains unclear, models have been suggested that assume it to happen. These have been claimed to be in good agreement with observations. We will review the current status of modeling SN Ia explosions focusing on recent multi-dimensional numerical models.

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