Nucleosynthesis in multi-dimensional SN Ia explosions

By C. Travaglio, W. Hillebrandt, M. Reinecke, F. Thielemann. 2004

203 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the results of nucleosynthesis calculations based on multi-dimensional (2D and 3D) hydrodynamical simulations of the thermonuclear burning phase in type Ia supernovae (hereafter SN Ia). The detailed nucleosynthetic yields of our explosion models are calculated by post-processing the ejecta, using passively advected tracer particles. The nuclear reaction network employed in computing the explosive nucleosynthesis contains 383 nuclear species, ranging from neutrons, protons, and α -particles to 98 Mo. Our models follow the common assumption that SN Ia are the explosions of white dwarfs that have approached the Chandrasekhar mass ($M_{\rm ch}\sim 1.39$), and are disrupted by thermonuclear fusion of carbon and oxygen. But in contrast to 1D models which adjust the burning speed to reproduce lightcurves and spectra, the thermonuclear burning model applied in this paper does not contain adjustable parameters. Therefore variations of the explosion energies and nucleosynthesis yields are dependent on changes of the initial conditions only. Here we discuss the nucleosynthetic yields obtained in 2D and 3D models with two different choices of ignition conditions ( centrally ignited , in which the spherical initial flame geometry is perturbated with toroidal rings, and bubbles , in which multi-point ignition conditions are simulated), but keeping the initial composition of the white dwarf unchanged. Constraints imposed on the hydrodynamical models from nucleosynthesis as well as from the radial velocity distribution of the elements are discussed in detail. We show that in our simulations unburned C and O varies typically from ~40% to ~50% of the total ejected material. Some of the unburned material remains between the flame plumes and is concentrated in low velocity regions at the end of the simulations. This effect is more pronounced in 2D than in 3D and in models with a small number of (large) ignition spots. The main differences between all our models and standard 1D computations are, besides the higher mass fraction of unburned C and O, the C/O ratio (in our case is typically a factor of 2.5 higher than in 1D computations), and somewhat lower abundances of certain intermediate mass nuclei such as S, Cl, Ar, K, and Ca, and of 56 Ni. We also demonstrate that the amount of 56 Ni produced in the explosion is a very sensitive function of density and temperature. Because explosive C and O burning may produce the iron-group elements and their isotopes in rather different proportions one can get different 56 Ni-fractions (and thus supernova luminosities) without changing the kinetic energy of the explosion. Finally, we show that we need the high resolution multi-point ignition (bubbles) model to burn most of the material in the center (demonstrating that high resolution coupled with a large number of ignition spots is crucial to get rid of unburned material in a pure deflagration SN Ia model).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8648e4986a65bff75598878c0637d4087891d8e9

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Citations in the corpus

Spectropolarimetry of Supernovae (2008, background): “Leonard et al. (2005) point to the simulations of Travaglio et al. (2004) that had significant unburned C and O as a basis for interpretation.”
GALACTIC CHEMICAL EVOLUTION AND SOLAR s-PROCESS ABUNDANCES: DEPENDENCE ON THE 13C-POCKET STRUCTURE (2014, methodology): “In Travaglio et al. (2004), only M = 1.5 and 3 M models among LMS were used for GCE calculations.”
3D deflagration simulations leaving bound remnants: a model for 2002cx-like Type Ia supernovae (2012, methodology): “…performed a post-processing calculation with a 384 isotope network for 106 Lagrangian tracer particles which were passively advected during the hydrodynamic simulation to record thermodynamic trajectories of mass elements c© 2012 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–12 (Travaglio et al. 2004; Seitenzahl et al. 2010).”
A model for cosmological simulations of galaxy formation physics: multi-epoch validation (2013, methodology): “With the Type Ia supernova rate specified, determining the mass return and metal production is easily done using the yield calculations of Thielemann et al. (2003) and Travaglio et al. (2004).”
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS IN TWO-DIMENSIONAL DELAYED DETONATION MODELS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS (2010, methodology): “Detailed nucleosynthesis calculations have been performed for some deflagration models (Travaglio et al. 2004a, 2005; Kozma et al. 2005, Röpke et al. 2006a).”
Double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar supernovae: can minimum helium shell masses detonate the core? (2010, methodology): “Our post-processing scheme is similar to Travaglio et al. (2004): passively advected tracer particles are used in the hydro runs and detailed nucleosynthetic yields are calculated afterwards from their density and temperature trajectories.”
NORMAL TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE FROM VIOLENT MERGERS OF WHITE DWARF BINARIES (2012, methodology): “In a postprocessing step we run a detailed nuclear network containing 384 isotopes on these trajectories (Travaglio et al. 2004).”
Constraints on the progenitor systems of type Ia supernovae (2005, background): “D deflagration models (Reinecke et al. 2002a,b) do not produce copious amounts of56Ni (Travaglio et al. 2004), and have appreciable amounts of unburned carbon and oxygen left over in the inner ashes (Kozma et al. 2005).”
The Peculiar SN 2005hk: Do Some Type Ia Supernovae Explode as Deflagrations? (2006, background): “Deflagration models also leave behind significant amounts of unburned oxygen and carbon (e.g., see Travaglio et al. 2004).”
Theoretical light curves for deflagration models of Type Ia supernova (2006, methodology): “D models (from Travaglio et al., 2004; Röpke, 2005).”
CONSTRAINING TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA MODELS: SN 2011fe AS A TEST CASE (2012, methodology): “The details of the nucleosynthesis in this explosion were determined from thermodynamic trajectories recorded by 106 tracer particles distributed in the exploding WD (Travaglio et al. 2004; Seitenzahl et al. 2010).”
Abundance stratification in Type Ia supernovae - I. The case of SN 2002bo (2004, background): “Recent 3D deflagration models leave significant amounts of unburned material both in the outer and in the inner parts of the ejecta (Gamezo et al. 2003; Reinecke et al. 1999; Travaglio et al. 2004), and produce too little radioactive 56Ni.”
Constraints on the Physics of Type Ia Supernovae from the X-Ray Spectrum of the Tycho Supernova Remnant (2005, methodology): “25 (Höflich et al. 2002), a delayed detonation calculated with a resolution 4 times greater than the DDTmodels of our grid; and model b30_3d_768 (Travaglio et al. 2004), a deflagration calculated in three dimensions with an Eulerian code and a high spatial resolution.”
TYPE Iax SUPERNOVAE: A NEW CLASS OF STELLAR EXPLOSION (2012, background): “This is a prediction of a low-energy, low-density explosion (e.g., Travaglio et al. 2004).”
Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations (2009, background): “Their calculations range from one- to three-dimensional calculations (Travaglio et al. 2004).”
Three-dimensional pure deflagration models with nucleosynthesis and synthetic observables for type ia supernovae (2013, methodology): “To this end, we solve a large nuclear network containing 384 species (ranging up to 98Mo; see Travaglio et al. 2004) for the trajectories of 106 equal mass tracer particles, which are passively advected in the hydrodynamic simulation.”