SHOCK BREAKOUT FROM TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/708/1/598· OSTI ID:21392459

Piro, Anthony L; Chang, Philip

The mode of explosive burning in Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) remains an outstanding problem. It is generally thought to begin as a subsonic deflagration, but this may transition into a supersonic detonation (the delayed detonation transition, DDT). We argue that this transition leads to a breakout shock, which would provide the first unambiguous evidence that DDTs occur. Its main features are a hard X-ray flash (approx20 keV) lasting approx10{sup -2} s with a total radiated energy of approx10{sup 40} erg, followed by a cooling tail. This creates a distinct feature in the visual light curve, which is separate from the nickel decay. This cooling tail has a maximum absolute visual magnitude of M{sub V} approx -9 to -10 at approx1 day, which depends most sensitively on the white dwarf radius at the time of the DDT. As the thermal diffusion wave moves in, the composition of these surface layers may be imprinted as spectral features, which would help to discern between SN Ia progenitor models. Since this feature should accompany every SNe Ia, future deep surveys (e.g., m = 24) will see it out to a distance of approx80 Mpc, giving a maximum rate of approx60 yr{sup -1}. Archival data sets can also be used to study the early rise dictated by the shock heating (at approx20 days before maximum B-band light). A similar and slightly brighter event may also accompany core bounce during the accretion-induced collapse to a neutron star, but with a lower occurrence rate.

• OSTI ID: 21392459
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 708, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/708/1/598; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
EXPLOSIONS
HARD X RADIATION
HYDRODYNAMICS
NEUTRON STARS
NICKEL
SHOCK HEATING
SUPERNOVAE
THERMAL DIFFUSION
WHITE DWARF STARS
BINARY STARS
DIFFUSION
DWARF STARS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FLUID MECHANICS
HEATING
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MECHANICS
METALS
PLASMA HEATING
RADIATIONS
STARS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
VARIABLE STARS
X RADIATION