# Supernovae Sparked By Dark Matter in White Dwarfs

## TL;DR

This paper explores how asymmetric dark matter can trigger Type Ia supernovae in white dwarfs, providing new constraints on dark matter interactions and proposing mechanisms involving black hole formation and Hawking evaporation.

## Contribution

It introduces a detailed mechanism for supernova ignition by dark matter and derives new bounds on nucleon-dark matter interactions across a wide mass range.

## Key findings

- Dark matter can ignite supernovae via gravitational collapse inside white dwarfs.
- For dark matter >10^{11} GeV, supernova ignition involves black hole formation and Hawking evaporation.
- White dwarf Coulomb crystal structure affects dark matter scattering and black hole formation timing.

## Abstract

It was recently demonstrated that asymmetric dark matter can ignite supernovae by collecting and collapsing inside lone sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs, and that this may be the cause of Type Ia supernovae. A ball of asymmetric dark matter accumulated inside a white dwarf and collapsing under its own weight, sheds enough gravitational potential energy through scattering with nuclei, to spark the fusion reactions that precede a Type Ia supernova explosion. In this article we elaborate on this mechanism and use it to place new bounds on interactions between nucleons and asymmetric dark matter for masses $m_{X} = 10^{6}-10^{16}$ GeV. Interestingly, we find that for dark matter more massive than $10^{11}$ GeV, Type Ia supernova ignition can proceed through the Hawking evaporation of a small black hole formed by the collapsed dark matter. We also identify how a cold white dwarf's Coulomb crystal structure substantially suppresses dark matter-nuclear scattering at low momentum transfers, which is crucial for calculating the time it takes dark matter to form a black hole. Higgs and vector portal dark matter models that ignite Type Ia supernovae are explored.