Sub-luminous type Ia supernovae from the mergers of equal-mass white dwarfs with mass ∼0.9M⊙

Rüdiger Pakmor (), Markus Kromer, Friedrich K. Röpke, Stuart A. Sim, Ashley J. Ruiter and Wolfgang Hillebrandt
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Rüdiger Pakmor: Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Markus Kromer: Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Friedrich K. Röpke: Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Stuart A. Sim: Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Ashley J. Ruiter: Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Wolfgang Hillebrandt: Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany

Nature, 2010, vol. 463, issue 7277, 61-64

Abstract: Supernovae true to type Type Ia supernovae are potentially invaluable as cosmological distance indicators, but if they are to provide a reliable measure of the expansion history of the Universe and nature of dark energy, more evidence that they are a largely homogeneous population will be required. A subclass of type Ia supernova, the 'sub-luminous 1991bg-like' objects, has proved problematic, as current models fail to predict their formation from the presumed supernova precursors, white dwarf stars. It had long been speculated that mergers of two white dwarfs should trigger such events, and now a new set of numerical simulations adds support to this idea. A merger of two equal-mass white dwarfs leads to a sub-luminous explosion if a single common-envelope phase is involved, and if the component stars are each about 0.9 solar masses in size.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08642

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