Microphysical Effects on the Instabilities of Astrophysical Flames
Abstract
Large-scale simulations of supernovae of Type Ia, which are essential for the ultimate understanding of the supernovae mechanism, need flame physics input at three stages: Ignition and early flame propagation, Large scale burning in a turbulent medium, and a transition to detonation, should one occur.
One aspect of our investigation of flame physics has been to examine the behavior of well-known flame instabilities such as Landau-Darrieus in the context of astrophysical flames and degenerate matter. These instabilities can distort and wrinkle the flame surface, increasing the amount of burning and thus the rate of energy input. We have examined both the effects of magnetic fields, and flame curvature and strain in degenerate material, on the growth rate of these instabilities. LJD was supported by the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program of the Office of Scientific Computing and Office of Defense Programs in the Department of Energy under contract DE-FG02-97ER25308.- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AAS...20312502D