NORMAL TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE FROM VIOLENT MERGERS OF WHITE DWARF BINARIES

By Rüdiger Pakmor, M. Kromer, Stefan Taubenberger, S. Sim, Friedrich K. Röpke, W. Hillebrandt. 2012

276 citations recorded by the source corpus.

One of the most important questions regarding the progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is whether mergers of two white dwarfs can lead to explosions that reproduce observations of normal events. Here we present a fully three-dimensional simulation of a violent merger of two carbon–oxygen white dwarfs with masses of 0.9 M☉ and 1.1 M☉ combining very high resolution and exact initial conditions. A well-tested combination of codes is used to study the system. We start with the dynamical inspiral phase and follow the subsequent thermonuclear explosion under the plausible assumption that a detonation forms in the process of merging. We then perform detailed nucleosynthesis calculations and radiative transfer simulations to predict synthetic observables from the homologously expanding supernova ejecta. We find that synthetic color light curves of our merger, which produces about 0.62 M☉ of 56Ni, show good agreement with those observed for normal SNe Ia in all wave bands from U to K. Line velocities in synthetic spectra around maximum light also agree well with observations. We conclude that violent mergers of massive white dwarfs can closely resemble normal SNe Ia. Therefore, depending on the number of such massive systems available these mergers may contribute at least a small fraction to the observed population of normal SNe Ia.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0c91fd2465e43ff283d0c59abf2f0b24a38b5dae

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. D. Kasen
2. F. Mannucci
3. Rüdiger Pakmor
4. M. Kromer
5. D. Maoz
6. Stan Woosley
7. W. Hillebrandt
8. G. Nelemans

Citations in the corpus

• Three-dimensional delayed-detonation models with nucleosynthesis for Type Ia supernovae (2012, background): “…et al. 2011) and increasing support from theorists for the double degenerate channel (Gilfanov & Bogdán 2010; Pakmor et al. 2010; Pakmor et al. 2011; Pakmor et al. 2012), culminating in mounting evidence that SN 2011fe was possibly due to a merger of two white dwarfs (e.g. Bloom et al. 2012;…”
• 3D deflagration simulations leaving bound remnants: a model for 2002cx-like Type Ia supernovae (2012, background): “Normal SNe Ia would then originate from other progenitors like double-degenerate mergers (e.g. Pakmor et al. 2012; Ruiter et al. 2012) or sub-Chandrasekharmass double detonations (e.g. Fink et al. 2010; Kromer et al. 2010; Woosley & Kasen 2011).”
• Sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf Detonations Revisited (2017, background): “In agreement with Pakmor et al. (2012)’s 1.1M WD detonation, our higher-mass ≥ 1.0M models yield sub-solar Mn/Fe mass ratios.”
• HELIUM-IGNITED VIOLENT MERGERS AS A UNIFIED MODEL FOR NORMAL AND RAPIDLY DECLINING TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE (2013, methodology): “In contrast to Pakmor et al. (2012b), we use composition profiles from Iben & Tutukov (1985) to construct the two WDs.”
• Supernova Type Ia progenitors from merging double white dwarfs - Using a new population synthesis model (2012, background): “A serious concern about the DD scenario is whether the collapse of the remnant would lead to a supernova or to a neutron star through accretion-induced collapse (see Nomoto & Iben 1985; Saio & Nomoto 1985; Piersanti et al. 2003; Yoon et al. 2007; Pakmor et al. 2010, 2012; Shen et al. 2012).”
• CONSTRAINING TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA MODELS: SN 2011fe AS A TEST CASE (2012, background): “These scenarios can lead to observables that resemble normal SNe Ia (Mazzali et al. 2007; Kasen et al. 2009; Pakmor et al. 2012), but they differ fundamentally in the explosion mechanism, the mass and the structure of the ejecta.”
• Hubble Space Telescope spectra of the type Ia supernova SN 2011fe: a tail of low-density, high-velocity material with Z < Z⊙ (2013, background): “However, in the outer layers the single and double degenerate profiles are likely to be similar (Pakmor et al. 2012), with the differences revealed only at late times (e.g. Mazzali et al.2011).”
• NUGRID STELLAR DATA SET. I. STELLAR YIELDS FROM H TO BI FOR STARS WITH METALLICITIES Z = 0.02 and Z = 0.01 (2013, background): “…et al. 1999; Herwig 2005) and possibly later as progenitors of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa, e.g., Nomoto 1984; Timmes et al. 1995; Hillebrandt & Niemeyer 2000; Domı́nguez et al. 2001; Thielemann et al. 2004; Travaglio et al. 2011; Pakmor et al. 2012; Seitenzahl et al. 2013; Hillebrandt et al. 2013).”
• Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2013, methodology): “…tidally disrupt and accrete the lower-mass WD, initially through an accretion disk configuration, that then likely takes on a more spherical geometry (e.g., Lorén-Aguilar, Isern & Garćıa-Berro 2009; Moll et al. 2013; Pakmor et al. 2012; Raskin et al. 2012; Schwab et al. 2012; Shen et al. 2012).”
• Three Hypervelocity White Dwarfs in Gaia DR2: Evidence for Dynamically Driven Double-degenerate Double-detonation Type Ia Supernovae (2018, background): “Furthermore, much of the disrupted WD material would remain at low velocities throughout the evolution of the SN (Pakmor et al. 2012).”