Successive Detonations in Accreting White Dwarfs as an Alternative Mechanism for Type I Supernovae

Simulations of exploding helium shells in accreting white dwarfs show that the ingoing shock wave is strong enough to ignite the carbon at the center into an outgoing detonation wave. This mechanism provides a new way to form supernovae of type Ia, not only in heavy white dwarfs approaching the Chandrasekhar mass, but in a much wider range of masses. Thus, many of the problems which arise in current models, such as deflagration versus detonation, may be solved as explosions of white dwarfs of lesser mass are considered.