Detonating Sub-Chandrasekhar White Dwarfs in Dynamically Unstable Double Degenerate Systems

Details Detonating Sub-Chandrasekhar White Dwarfs in Dynamically Unstable Double Degenerate Systems Detonating Sub-Chandrasekhar White Dwarfs in Dynamically Unstable Double Degenerate Systems

Sep 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011head...12.3307g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #12, #33.07

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

For dynamically unstable double-degenerate systems with a helium secondary, the final tens of orbits are characterized by the rapid accumulate of helium on the surface of the primary. The interaction between this accreted material and the accretion stream leads to the development of large-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities along the interface between the two regions. These instabilities eventually grow into dense knots of material that periodically strike the surface of the primary, adiabatically compressing the underlying helium torus. If the temperature of the compressed material is raised above a critical temperature, the timescale for triple-alpha reactions becomes comparable to the dynamical timescale, leading to the detonation of the primary's helium envelope. These events on their own would appear very similar to so-called "point Ia" events, with most of the burning products being no heavier than 28Si and only yielding a few thousandths of a solar mass of 56Ni. However, the surface detonation drives shockwaves into the primary which tend to concentrate at one or more focal points within the primary's CO core. If a relatively small amount of mass is raised above a critical temperature and density at these focal points, the CO core may itself be detonated, resulting in a transient event that is difficult to distinguish from a classical type Ia event resulting from a delayed detonation. We explore the necessary ingredients required to produce both the initial surface detonation and the secondary detonation within the CO core.

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