Dark matter ignition of type Ia supernovae

TL;DR

This paper proposes that PeV-scale asymmetric dark matter can trigger type Ia supernovae by accumulating and collapsing in white dwarfs, offering a novel explanation for sub-Chandrasekhar explosions and connecting dark matter physics with supernova observations.

Contribution

It introduces a new mechanism where dark matter induces supernova ignition in white dwarfs, linking dark matter properties with supernova mass distributions and ages.

Findings

Dark matter can cause white dwarf collapse and ignition.

Inverse correlation between supernova mass and ignition age observed.

Dark matter models also address pulsar black hole formation.

Abstract

Recent studies of low redshift type Ia supernovae (SNIa) indicate that half explode from less than Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs, implying ignition must proceed from something besides the canonical criticality of Chandrasekhar mass SNIa progenitors. We show that $1-100$ PeV mass asymmetric dark matter, with imminently detectable nucleon scattering interactions, can accumulate to the point of self-gravitation in a white dwarf and collapse, shedding gravitational potential energy by scattering off nuclei, thereby heating the white dwarf and igniting the flame front that precedes SNIa. We combine data on SNIa masses with data on the ages of SNIa-adjacent stars. This combination reveals a $2.8 \sigma$ inverse correlation between SNIa masses and ignition ages, which could result from increased capture of dark matter in 1.4 versus 1.1 solar mass white dwarfs. Future studies of SNIa in galactic centers will provide additional tests of dark-matter-induced type Ia ignition. Remarkably, both bosonic and fermionic SNIa-igniting dark matter also resolve the missing pulsar problem by forming black holes in $\gtrsim 10$ Myr old pulsars at the center of the Milky Way.