Imprint of modified Einstein's gravity on white dwarfs: Unifying type Ia supernovae

Abstract

We establish the importance of modified Einstein's gravity (MG) in white dwarfs (WDs) for the first time in the literature. We show that MG leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs, depending on a single model parameter. However, conventional WDs on approaching Chandrasekhar's limit are expected to trigger type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe. Nevertheless, observations of several peculiar, under- and over-luminous SNeIa argue for the limiting mass widely different from Chandrasekhar's limit. Explosions of MG induced sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs explain under- and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes. Our discovery questions both the global validity of Einstein's gravity and the uniqueness of Chandrasekhar's limit.

6 pages including 1 figure and 2 tables; received Honorable Mention in the Gravity Research Foundation 2015 Awards for Essays on Gravitation. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1411.1515

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• The type Ia supernova SNLS-03D3bb from a super-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf star
• Constraining f(R) Gravity as a Scalar Tensor Theory
• Further stable neutron star models from f(R) gravity
• The underluminous Type Ia Supernova 2005bl and the class of objects similar to SN 1991bg
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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Stellar equilibrium configurations of white dwarfs in the $f(R,T)$ gravity
• White Dwarf Critical Tests for Modified Gravity
• Stability criterion for white dwarfs in Palatini $f(R)$ gravity
• White dwarf stars in modified gravity
• The trace of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor-dependent Einstein's field equations
• Properties of white dwarfs in Einstein-$\Lambda$ gravity
• Cooling Process of White Dwarf Stars in Palatini $f(R)$ Gravity
• White dwarf cooling in $f(R,T)$ gravity