Exploring an Alternative Channel of Evolution Towards SNa Ia Explosion

Abstract

In this paper we explore the possibility that isolated CO-WDs with mass smaller than the Chandrasekhar limit may undergo nuclear runaway and SNa explosion, triggered by the energy produced by under-barrier pycno-nuclear reactions between carbon and light elements. Such reactions would be due to left over impurities of the light elements, which would remain inactive until the WDs transit from the liquid to the solid state. We devise a simple formulation for the coulombian potential and the local density in a ionic lattice affected by impurities and introduce it in the known rates of pycno-nuclear reactions for multi-component plasmas. Our semi-analytical results indicate that the energy generated by these pycno-nuclear reactions exceeds the WD luminosity and provides enough energy to elementary cells of matter to balance the energy cost for C-ignition at much younger ages than the age of the Universe, even for WDs with masses as low as $\simeq 0.85M_{\odot }$. A thermonuclear runaway may thus be triggered in isolated WDs. The explosion would occur from few hundred thousand to a few million years after the WD formation in the mass interval $0.85-1.2M_{\odot }$.

arXiv comment29 pages, 15 figures, 7 tables, new paragraph added, MNRAS accepted

References in corpus (22)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• PARSEC: stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code
• Two populations of progenitors for type Ia SNe?
• A Catalog of Spectroscopically Confirmed White Dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4
• Chemical yields from low- and intermediate-mass stars: model predictions and basic observational constraints
• Scaled solar tracks and isochrones in a large region of the Z-Y plane I. From the ZAMS to the TP-AGB end for 0.15 - 2.5 Mo stars
• New evolutionary sequences for extremely low mass white dwarfs: Homogeneous mass and age determinations, and asteroseismic prospects
• New cooling sequences for old white dwarfs
• The initial-final mass relationship of white dwarfs revisited: effect on the luminosity function and mass distribution
• Scaled solar tracks and isochrones in a large region of the Z-Y plane. II. From 2.5 to 20 solar masses
• Nuclear fusion in dense matter: Reaction rate and carbon burning
• A large stellar evolution database for population synthesis studies: VI. White dwarf cooling sequences
• The ejected mass distribution of type Ia supernovae: A significant rate of non-Chandrasekhar-mass progenitors
• Fusion reactions in multicomponent dense matter
• Comparison of theoretical white dwarf cooling timescales
• New evolutionary sequences for hot H-deficient white dwarfs on the basis of a full account of progenitor evolution
• Nuclear Reaction Rates in a Plasma
• The fraction of type Ia supernovae exploding inside planetary nebulae (SNIPs)
• New phase diagrams for dense carbon-oxygen mixtures and white dwarf evolution
• Evolution of DA white dwarfs in the context of a new theory of convection
• Short-period $g$-mode pulsations in low-mass white dwarfs triggered by H shell burning
• Quiescent nuclear burning in low-metallicity white dwarfs

Cited by in corpus (18)

• The Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae
• On the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae
• Measuring nickel masses in Type Ia supernovae using cobalt emission in nebular phase spectra
• Probing type Ia supernova properties using bolometric light curves from the Carnegie Supernova Project and the CfA Supernova Group
• Type Ia Supernova Sub-classes and Progenitor Origin
• The response of a helium white dwarf to an exploding type Ia supernova
• Wind Roche Lobe Overflow as a way to make type Ia supernova from the widest symbiotic systems
• Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of the core-degenerate scenario for Type Ia supernovae
• Constraining The Single-Degenerate Channel of Type Ia Supernovae With Stable Iron-Group Elements in SNR 3C 397
• Early UV emission from disk-originated matter (DOM) in type Ia supernovae in the double degenerate scenario
• Nuclear processes in Astrophysics: Recent progress
• Comparative Analysis of SN 2012dn Optical Spectra: Days -14 to +114
• Type Ia Supernova Remnants: Shaping by Iron Bullets
• The Late-Time Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae: Confronting Models with Observations
• Is the central binary system of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428 a Type Ia supernova progenitor?
• Differentially Rotating White Dwarfs I: Regimes of Internal Rotation
• Ignition of carbon burning from nuclear fission in compact stars
• Pre-explosion helium shell flash in type Ia supernovae