The structure of the carbon-burning deflagration front in a degenerate stellar core

A self-consistent hydrodynamic calculation yields the structure of a time-dependent carbon-burning deflagration front, typifying the thermonuclear burning process in a degenerate carbon-oxygen stellar core. Estimates indicate that the heating by weak shocks will pay a significant role in igniting thermonuclear reactions in the deflagration burning regime. Matter will be heated to the ignition point mainly by the adiabatic contraction of the pulsating core together with the entropy growth due to weak shocks from the core layers that have already burned.