The Physics of Extreme-Gravity Stars

Session

White dwarf — white dwarf binaries; their outcomes and merger products

19 Jun 2017, 14:45

122:026 (Nordita, Stockholm)

374. Type Ia supernovae from dynamically-driven double degenerate double detonations

Ken Shen

19/06/2017, 14:45

Standard Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) progenitor scenarios have encountered increasing opposition in the past decade from both theoretical and observational constraints. In this talk, I will describe a new scenario that has risen to the challenge, which invokes two white dwarfs that begin to merge unstably, triggering a helium-powered detonation that then transforms into a...

375. Classical Novae as Laboratories for Common Envelope Evolution

Laura Chomuik

19/06/2017, 15:45

Common envelope evolution is the largest remaining uncertainty in our understanding of close binary evolution and stellar mergers. I will present recent findings on classical novae to illustrate that novae can be powerful tests of the efficiency of common envelope evolution, and to highlight observational signatures that can be used to trace common envelope ejection.

377. Observations of WD - WD mergers [in the Type Ia supernova context]

Mattia Bulla

19/06/2017, 16:15

Among the possible outcomes predicted for double white-dwarf binaries, Type Ia supernovae are perhaps the best studied ones. Although the widely accepted picture for these events involves the thermonuclear explosion of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf in a binary system, we are still left with the embarrassing question about the nature of the companion star. In my talk, I will review...

376. Two classes of fast declining SN1a

Suhail Dhawan

19/06/2017, 16:45

Fast-declining Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) separate into two categories based on their bolometric and near-infrared (NIR) properties. The peak bolometric luminosity (L_max), the phase of the first maximum relative to the optical, the NIR peak luminosity and the occurrence of a second maximum in the NIR distinguish a group of very faint SN Ia. Fast-declining supernovae...