Strongly magnetized electron degenerate gas: Highly super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs

TL;DR

This paper explores how strong magnetic fields in relativistic, degenerate electron gases can lead to white dwarfs with masses significantly exceeding the traditional Chandrasekhar limit, aligning with recent supernova observations.

Contribution

It introduces a modified equation of state for magnetized white dwarfs considering Landau quantization, predicting super-Chandrasekhar masses up to 2.6 solar masses.

Findings

White dwarfs can have masses up to 2.6 M_sun under strong magnetic fields.

Results align with observed super-Chandrasekhar supernova progenitors.

Magnetic effects significantly alter the mass-radius relation of white dwarfs.

Abstract

We consider a relativistic, degenerate, electron gas under the influence of a strong magnetic field, which describes magnetized white dwarfs. Landau quantization changes the density of states available to the electrons, thus modifying the underlying equation of state. We obtain the mass-radius relations for such white dwarfs and show that it is possible to have magnetized white dwarfs with a mass significantly greater than the Chandrasekhar limit in the range 2.3 - 2.6 M_sun. Recent observations of peculiar type Ia supernovae - SN 2006gz, SN 2007if, SN 2009dc, SN 2003fg - seem to suggest super-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs with masses up to 2.4 - 2.8 M_sun, as their most likely progenitors and interestingly our results lie within the observational limits.