Thermonuclear Supernovae

TL;DR

This paper reviews models of Type Ia supernovae as thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs, focusing on recent 3D simulations of deflagration and detonation mechanisms to understand their explosion physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of current astrophysical models and recent simulation results for thermonuclear supernova explosions.

Findings

Turbulent deflagration models show complex flame behavior.

Delayed detonation models can reproduce observed supernova features.

Simulations highlight the importance of turbulence in explosion dynamics.

Abstract

The application of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as distance indicators in cosmology calls for a sound understanding of these objects. Recent years have seen a brisk development of astrophysical models which explain SNe Ia as thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars. While the evolution of the progenitor is still uncertain, the explosion mechanism certainly involves the propagation of a thermonuclear flame through the white dwarf star. Three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations allowed to study a wide variety of possibilities involving subsonic flame propagation (deflagrations), flames accelerated by turbulence, and supersonic detonations. These possibilities lead to a variety of scenarios. I review the currently discussed approaches and present some recent results from simulations of the turbulent deflagration model and the delayed detonation model.