Physics – Nuclear Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003aps..dnp1wb002w&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, Division of Nuclear Physics Fall Meeting, October 30 - November 1, 2003, Tucson, Arizona, MEETING ID:
Physics
Nuclear Physics
Scientific paper
When carbon fusion ignites near the center of an accreting white dwarf near the Chandrasekhar Mass, an irreversible series of events is initiated that ultimately leads to the complete disruption of the star and a bright display powered by radioactive decay. Though studied for over 40 years, the details of how this happens remain elusive. Three areas of uncertainty will be discussed: 1) the "ignition" of the bomb: one point or many, central or off-center; 2) the propagation of an unconfined Rayleigh-Taylor unstable burning front - does a robust transition to detonation occur as the front moves into a regime of ``distributed burning"? 3) the generation of the light curve and the Philipps relation. Studies of question 1), equally critical to the other two, suggest a dipolar flow at ignition time and off-center ignition. There may be an uncontrolable degree of chaos in the peak brightness resulting from the ignition process that will affect how SN Ia are used for cosmology. Question 2) is a frontier subject in the chemical combustion community. Results of new multi-dimensional studies will be presented. Question 3) involves atomic physics more than hydrodynamics, but current views suggest that SN Ia light curves should be characterized, at some level, by more than a single parameter.
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