Nucleosynthesis from Off-Center Collisions of Two White Dwarfs
Abstract
We present 3D simulations of off-center collisions between two white dwarfs to explore the possibility of such events being part of the overall Type Ia Supernovae (SNIa) population. In particular, we investigate collisions of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs of masses spanning the 0.6 - 0.9 solar masses over a range of non-zero impact parameters using the Eulerian adaptive-grid code FLASH. Preliminary results indicate 0.0 - 0.5 solar masses of 56Ni and 0.1 - 0.3 solar masses of unburned carbon and oxygen, making such collisions a candidate for producing sub-luminous supernovae, such as SN 1991bg, SN 1992K, and SN 2005bl. We also compare our results with similar simulations carried out using a Lagrangian particle SPH code, and comment on the conservation of angular momentum in a grid-based code.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #217
- Pub Date:
- January 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AAS...21733706A