Properties of Carbon-Oxygen White Dwarf Merger Remnants

TL;DR

This study investigates the properties of carbon-oxygen white dwarf merger remnants through extensive simulations, exploring the conditions under which these mergers could lead to Type Ia supernovae, and assessing the fine-tuning required for such explosions.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive set of SPH merger simulations that map the parameter space, revealing trends in remnant properties and evaluating the viability of the sub-Chandrasekhar merger channel for SNe Ia.

Findings

Merger remnant properties depend on initial conditions.

Certain merger scenarios can produce supernova-like explosions.

Results suggest less fine-tuning is needed for the sub-Chandrasekhar channel.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that for suitable initial conditions both super- and sub-Chandrasekhar mass carbon-oxygen white dwarf mergers produce explosions similar to observed SNe Ia. The question remains, however, how much fine tuning is necessary to produce these conditions. We performed a large set of SPH merger simulations, sweeping the possible parameter space. We find trends for merger remnant properties, and discuss how our results affect the viability of our recently proposed sub-Chandrasekhar merger channel for SNe Ia.