No Arabic abstract
Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) and Symbiotic Binaries are close (or not so close) binary star systems which contain both a white dwarf (WD) primary and a larger cooler secondary star that typically fills its Roche Lobe. The cooler star is losing mass through the inner Lagrangian point of the binary and a fraction of this material is accreted by the WD. Here we report on our hydrodynamic studies of the thermonuclear runaway (TNR) in the accreted material that ends in a Classical Nova explosion. We have followed the evolution of the TNRs on both carbon-oxygen (CO) and oxygen-neon (ONe) WDs. We report on 3 studies in this paper. First, simulations in which we accrete only solar matter using NOVA (our 1-D, fully implicit, hydro code). Second, we use MESA for similar studies in which we accrete only Solar matter and compare the results. Third, we accrete solar matter until the TNR is ongoing and then switch the composition in the accreted layers to a mixed composition: either 25% WD and 75% solar or 50% WD and 50% Solar matter. We find that the amount of accreted material is inversely proportional to the initial 12C abundance (as expected). Thus, accreting solar matter results in a larger amount of accreted material to fuel the outburst; much larger than in earlier studies where a mixed composition was assumed from the beginning of the simulation. Our most important result is that all these simulations eject significantly less mass than accreted and, therefore, the WD is growing in mass toward the Chandrasekhar Limit.
Models have long predicted that the frequency-averaged masses of white dwarfs in Galactic classical novae are twice as large as those of field white dwarfs. Only a handful of dynamically well-determined nova white dwarf masses have been published, leaving the theoretical predictions poorly tested. The recurrence time distributions and mass accretion rate distributions of novae are even more poorly known. To address these deficiencies, we have combined our extensive simulations of nova eruptions with the Strope et al (2010) and Schaefer et al (2010) databases of outburst characteristics of Galactic classical and recurrent novae to determine the masses of 92 white dwarfs in novae. We find that the mean mass (frequency averaged mean mass) of 82 Galactic classical novae is 1.06 (1.13) Msun, while the mean mass of 10 recurrent novae is 1.31 Msun. These masses, and the observed nova outburst amplitude and decline time distributions allow us to determine the long-term mass accretion rate distribution of classical novae. Remarkably, that value is just 1.3 x 10^{-10} Msun/yr, which is an order of magnitude smaller than that of cataclysmic binaries in the decades before and after classical nova eruptions. This predicts that old novae become low mass transfer rate systems, and hence dwarf novae, for most of the time between nova eruptions. We determine the mass accretion rates of each of the 10 known Galactic RN, finding them to be in the range 10^{-7} - 10^{-8} $ Msun/yr. We are able to predict the recurrence time distribution of novae and compare it with the predictions of population synthesis models.
When carbon is ignited off-center in a CO core of a super-AGB star, its burning in a convective shell tends to propagate to the center. Whether the C flame will actually be able to reach the center depends on the efficiency of extra mixing beneath the C convective shell. Whereas thermohaline mixing is too inefficient to interfere with the C-flame propagation, convective boundary mixing can prevent the C burning from reaching the center. As a result, a C-O-Ne white dwarf (WD) is formed, after the star has lost its envelope. Such a hybrid WD has a small CO core surrounded by a thick ONe zone. In our 1D stellar evolution computations the hybrid WD is allowed to accrete C-rich material, as if it were in a close binary system and accreted H-rich material from its companion with a sufficiently high rate at which the accreted H would be processed into He under stationary conditions, assuming that He could then be transformed into C. When the mass of the accreting WD approaches the Chandrasekhar limit, we find a series of convective Urca shell flashes associated with high abundances of 23Na and 25Mg. They are followed by off-center C ignition leading to convection that occupies almost the entire star. To model the Urca processes, we use the most recent well-resolved data for their reaction and neutrino-energy loss rates. Because of the emphasized uncertainty of the convective Urca process in our hybrid WD models of SN Ia progenitors, we consider a number of their potentially possible alternative instances for different mixing assumptions, all of which reach a phase of explosive C ignition, either off or in the center. Our hybrid SN Ia progenitor models have much lower C to O abundance ratios at the moment of the explosive C ignition than their pure CO counterparts, which may explain the observed diversity of the SNe Ia.
Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are thought to originate from the thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs (WDs). The proposed progenitors of standard type Ia SNe have been studied for decades and can be, generally, divided into explosions of CO WDs accreting material from stellar non-degenerate companions (single-degenerate; SD models), and those arising from the explosive interaction of two CO WDs (double-degenerate; DD models). However, current models for the progenitors of such SNe fail to reproduce the diverse properties of the observed explosions, nor do they explain the inferred rates and the characteristics of the observed populations of type Ia SNe and their expected progenitors. Here we show that the little-studied mergers of CO-WDs with hybrid Helium-CO (He-CO) WDs can provide for a significant fraction of the normal type Ia SNe. Here we use detailed thermonuclear-hydrodynamical and radiative-transfer models to show that a wide range of mergers of CO WDs with hybrid He-CO WDs can give rise to normal type Ia SNe. We find that such He-enriched mergers give rise to explosions for which the synthetic light-curves and spectra resemble those of observed type Ia SNe, and in particular, they can produce a wide range of peak-luminosities, MB(MR)~ 18.4 to 19.2 (~ 18.5 to 19:45), consistent with those observed for normal type Ia SNe. Moreover, our population synthesis models show that, together with the contribution from mergers of massive double CO-WDs (producing the more luminous SNe), they can potentially reproduce the full range of type Ia SNe, their rate and delay-time distribution.
Based mostly on stellar models which do not include rotation, CO white dwarfs which accrete helium at rates of about $sim 10^{-8}~mathrm{M}_odot/mathrm{yr}$ have been put forward as candidate progenitors for a number of transient astrophysical phenomena, including supernovae of Type Ia, and the peculiar and fainter Type Iax supernovae. Here we study the impact of accretion-induced spin-up including the subsequent magnetic field generation, angular momentum transport, and viscous heating on the white dwarf evolution up to the point of helium ignition. We resolve the structure of the helium accreting white dwarf models with a one dimensional Langrangian hydrodynamic code, modified to include rotational and magnetic effects. We find magnetic angular momentum transport, which leads to quasi solid-body rotation, profoundly impacts the evolution of the white dwarf models. Our rotating lower mass ($0.54$ and $0.82~mathrm{M}_odot$) models accrete up to 50% more mass up to ignition compared to the non-rotating case and the opposite for our more massive models. Furthermore, we find that rotation leads to up to 10-times smaller helium ignition densities, except for the lowest adopted initial white dwarf mass. Ignition densities of order $10^6,mathrm{g/cm}^3$ are only found for the lowest accretion rates and for large amounts of accreted helium $gtrsim 0.4,mathrm{M}_odot$. However, correspondingly massive donor stars would transfer mass at much higher rates. We expect explosive He-shell burning to mostly occur as deflagrations and at $dot{M}>2cdot10^{-8}~mathrm{M}_odot/mathrm{yr}$, regardless of white dwarf mass. Our results imply that helium accretion onto CO white dwarfs at the considered rates is unlikely to lead to explosions of the CO core or to classical Type,Ia supernovae, but may instead produce events like faint and fast hydrogen-free supernovae.
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.).