Neutrino and gravitational wave signal of a delayed-detonation model of Type Ia supernovae

TL;DR

This paper models neutrino and gravitational wave signals from a delayed-detonation Type Ia supernova, showing potential detectability by future space-based observatories and identifying signatures of the explosion mechanism.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed calculation of neutrino and gravitational wave signals from a 3D delayed-detonation supernova model, including dynamical neutrino effects.

Findings

Neutrinos carry away 2×10^49 erg, but have limited dynamical impact.

Gravitational wave energy is 7×10^39 erg with a peak at 0.4 Hz.

Future detectors could observe these signals up to 1.3 Mpc.

Abstract

The progenitor system(s) and the explosion mechanism(s) of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are still under debate. Non-electromagnetic observables, in particular gravitational waves and neutrino emission, of thermonuclear supernovae are a complementary window to light curves and spectra for studying these enigmatic objects. A leading model for SNe Ia is the thermonuclear incineration of a near-Chandrasekhar mass carbon-oxygen white dwarf star in a "delayed-detonation". We calculate a three-dimensional hydrodynamic explosion for the N100 delayed-detonation model extensively discussed in the literature, taking the dynamical effects of neutrino emission from all important contributing source terms into account. Although neutrinos carry away $2 \times 10^{49}$ erg of energy, we confirm the common view that neutrino energy losses are dynamically not very important, resulting in only a modest reduction of the final kinetic energy by two per cent. We then calculate the gravitational wave signal from the time evolution of the quadrupole moment. Our model radiates $7 \times 10^{39}$ erg in gravitational waves and the spectrum has a pronounced peak around 0.4 Hz. Depending on viewing angle and polarization, we find that the future space-based gravitational wave missions DECIGO and BBO would be able to detect our source to a distance of 1.3 Mpc. We predict a clear signature of the deflagration-to-detonation transition in the neutrino and the gravitational wave signals. If observed, such a feature would be a strong indicator of the realization of delayed-detonations in near-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs.