No Arabic abstract
The double-degenerate model, involving the merger of double carbon-oxygen white dwarfs (CO WDs), is one of the two classic models for the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Previous studies suggested that off-centre carbon burning would occur if the mass-accretion rate (Macc) is relatively high during the merging process, leading to the formation of oxygen-neon (ONe) cores that may collapse into neutron stars. However, the off-centre carbon burning is still incompletely understood, especially when the inwardly propagating burning wave reaches the centre. In this paper, we aim to investigate the propagating characteristics of burning waves and the subsequently evolutionary outcomes of these CO cores. We simulated the long-term evolution of CO WDs that accrete CO-rich material by employing the stellar evolution code MESA on the basis of the thick-disc assumption. We found that the final outcomes of CO WDs strongly depend on Macc (Msun/yr) based on the thick-disc assumption, which can be divided into four regions: (1) explosive carbon ignition in the centre, then SNe Ia (Macc < 2.45*10^-6); (2) OSi cores, then neutron stars (2.45*10^-6 < Macc < 4.5*10^-6); (3) ONe cores, then e-capture SNe (4.5*10^-6 < Macc < 1.05*10^-5); (4) off-centre oxygen and neon ignition, then off-centre explosion or Si-Fe cores (Macc > 1.05*10^-5). Our results indicate that the final fates of double CO WD mergers are strongly dependent on the merging processes (e.g. slow merger, fast merger, composite merger, violent merger, etc.).
The carbon-oxygen white dwarf (CO WD) + He star channel is one of the promising ways for producing type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) with short delay times. Recent studies found that carbon under the He-shell can be ignited if the mass-accretion rate of CO WD is higher than a critical rate (about 2 * 10^-6 Msun/yr), triggering an inwardly propagating carbon flame. Previous studies usually supposed that the off-centre carbon flame would reach the centre, resulting in the formation of an oxygen-neon (ONe) WD that will collapse into a neutron star. However, the process of off-centre carbon burning is not well studied. This may result in some uncertainties on the final fates of CO WDs. By employing MESA, we simulated the long-term evolution of off-centre carbon burning in He-accreting CO WDs. We found that the inwardly propagating carbon flame transforms the CO WDs into OSi cores directly but not ONe cores owing to the high temperature of the burning front. We suggest that the final fates of the CO WDs may be OSi WDs under the conditions of off-centre carbon burning, or explode as iron-core-collapse SNe if the mass-accretion continues. We also found that the mass-fractions of silicon in the OSi cores are sensitive to the mass-accretion rates.
The final outcomes of accreting ONe white dwarfs (ONe WDs) have been studied for several decades, but there are still some issues not resolved. Recently, some studies suggested that the deflagration of oxygen would occur for accreting ONe WDs with Chandrasekhar masses. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether ONe WDs can experience accretion-induced collapse (AIC) or explosions when their masses approach the Chandrasekhar limit. Employing the stellar evolution code modules for experiments in stellar astrophysics (MESA), we simulate the long-term evolution of ONe WDs by accreting CO material. The ONe WDs undergo weak multicycle carbon flashes during the mass-accretion process, leading to the mass increase of the WDs. We found that different initial WD masses and mass-accretion rates have influence on the evolution of central density and temperature. However, the central temperature cannot reach the explosive oxygen ignition temperature due to the neutrino cooling. This work implies that the final outcome of accreting ONe WDs is electron-capture induced collapse rather than thermonuclear explosion.
Accretion induced collapse (AIC) may be responsible for the formation of some interesting neutron star binaries, e.g., millisecond pulsars, intermediate-mass binary pulsars, etc. It has been suggested that oxygen-neon white dwarfs (ONe WDs) can increase their mass to the Chandrasekhar limit by multiple He-shell flashes, leading to AIC events. However, the properties of He-shell flashes on the surface of ONe WDs are still not well understood. In this article, we aim to study He-shell flashes on the surface of ONe WDs in a systematic approach. We investigated the long-term evolution of ONe WDs accreting He-rich material with various constant mass-accretion rates by time-dependent calculations with the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), in which the initial ONe WD masses range from 1.1 to 1.35 M . We found that the mass-retention efficiency increases with the ONe WD mass and the mass-accretion rate, whereas both the nova cycle duration and the ignition mass decrease with the ONe WD mass and the mass-accretion rate. We also present the nuclear products in different accretion scenarios. The results presented in this article can be used in the future binary population synthesis studies of AIC events.
The merger of two carbon-oxygen white dwarfs can lead either to a spectacular transient, stable nuclear burning or a massive, rapidly rotating white dwarf. Simulations of mergers have shown that the outcome strongly depends on whether the white dwarfs are similar or dissimilar in mass. In the similar-mass case, both white dwarfs merge fully and the remnant is hot throughout, while in the dissimilar case, the more massive, denser white dwarf remains cold and essentially intact, with the disrupted lower mass one wrapped around it in a hot envelope and disk. In order to determine what constitutes similar in mass and more generally how the properties of the merger remnant depend on the input masses, we simulated unsynchronized carbon-oxygen white dwarf mergers for a large range of masses using smoothed-particle hydrodynamics. We find that the structure of the merger remnant varies smoothly as a function of the ratio of the central densities of the two white dwarfs. A density ratio of 0.6 approximately separates similar and dissimilar mass mergers. Confirming previous work, we find that the temperatures of most merger remnants are not high enough to immediately ignite carbon fusion. During subsequent viscous evolution, however, the interior will likely be compressed and heated as the disk accretes and the remnant spins down. We find from simple estimates that this evolution can lead to ignition for many remnants. For similar-mass mergers, this would likely occur under sufficiently degenerate conditions that a thermonuclear runaway would ensue.
We investigate properties of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with respect to the composite uncertainties in the reaction rates using the stellar evolution toolkit, Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) and the probability density functions in the reaction rate library STARLIB. These are the first Monte Carlo stellar evolution studies that use complete stellar models. Focusing on 3 M$_{odot}$ models evolved from the pre main-sequence to the first thermal pulse, we survey the remnant core mass, composition, and structure properties as a function of 26 STARLIB reaction rates covering hydrogen and helium burning using a Principal Component Analysis and Spearman Rank-Order Correlation. Relative to the arithmetic mean value, we find the width of the 95% confidence interval to be $Delta M_{{rm 1TP}}$ $approx$ 0.019 M$_{odot}$ for the core mass at the first thermal pulse, $Delta$$t_{rm{1TP}}$ $approx$ 12.50 Myr for the age, $Delta log(T_{{rm c}}/{rm K}) approx$ 0.013 for the central temperature, $Delta log(rho_{{rm c}}/{rm g cm}^{-3}) approx$ 0.060 for the central density, $Delta Y_{rm{e,c}} approx$ 2.6$times$10$^{-5}$ for the central electron fraction, $Delta X_{rm c}(^{22}rm{Ne}) approx$ 5.8$times$10$^{-4}$, $Delta X_{rm c}(^{12}rm{C}) approx$ 0.392, and $Delta X_{rm c}(^{16}rm{O}) approx$ 0.392. Uncertainties in the experimental $^{12}$C($alpha,gamma)^{16}rm{O}$, triple-$alpha$, and $^{14}$N($p,gamma)^{15}rm{O}$ reaction rates dominate these variations. We also consider a grid of 1 to 6 M$_{odot}$ models evolved from the pre main-sequence to the final white dwarf to probe the sensitivity of the initial-final mass relation to experimental uncertainties in the hydrogen and helium reaction rates.