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Solid white dwarfs as Type I supernova progenitors

Nature volume 309, pages 431–432 (1984)Cite this article

Abstract

Mass-accreting white dwarfs in close binary systems are generally thought to be Type I supernova (SN I) progenitors. Low-mass (Mtot≲5 M⊙) binary X-ray sources (also known as Type II sources) equally appear to be the descendants of cataclysmic variables (CV) and thus to have been produced by the collapse of a mass-accreting white dwarf. We point out here that a single process, thermonuclear ignition inside a partially solid, carbon–oxygen white dwarf, may account for the full range of phenomena: from mildly or non-explosive collapses leaving a condensed remnant up to ‘slow’ to ‘fast’ SN I outbursts with total disruption of the parent star.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física de la Tierra y del Cosmos, Universidad de Barcelona, and Grup d'Astrofísica de la SCF (IEC), Barcelona, 28, Spain

    Jordi Isern & Javier Labay

  2. Astronomy and Astrophysics Center, University of Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA

    Ramón Canal

Authors
  1. Jordi Isern
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  2. Javier Labay
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  3. Ramón Canal
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Isern, J., Labay, J. & Canal, R. Solid white dwarfs as Type I supernova progenitors. Nature 309, 431–432 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/309431a0

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