skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: REMNANTS OF BINARY WHITE DWARF MERGERS

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)

We carry out a comprehensive smooth particle hydrodynamics simulation survey of double-degenerate white dwarf binary mergers of varying mass combinations in order to establish correspondence between initial conditions and remnant configurations. We find that all but one of our simulation remnants share general properties such as a cold, degenerate core surrounded by a hot disk, while our least massive pair of stars forms only a hot disk. We characterize our remnant configurations by the core mass, the rotational velocity of the core, and the half-mass radius of the disk. We also find that some of our simulations with very massive constituent stars exhibit helium detonations on the surface of the primary star before complete disruption of the secondary. However, these helium detonations are insufficiently energetic to ignite carbon, and so do not lead to prompt carbon detonations.

OSTI ID:
22011784
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 746, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English