APEC Seminar (Astronomy - Particle Physics - Experimental Physics - Cosmology)

Speaker: Ivo Seitenzhal (Univ. of New South Wales, Canberra)
Title: Modelling thermonuclear supernovae ― from explosion simulations to the shocked ejecta of the remnant
Date (JST): Thu, May 09, 2019, 13:30 - 14:30
Place: Balcony B
Related File: 2326.pdf
Abstract: In 2011 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae". These Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are also the dominant contributor to iron-group nucleosynthesis and leading candidates for the elusive sites of high energy cosmic rays, the p-process isotopes, and the positrons responsible for the 511 keV annihilation signal in our Galaxy.
SNe Ia are thought to be thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars. Despite their ubiquitous importance to cosmology and astronomy, their progenitor systems and the explosion mechanism(s) are still largely unknown. This "SN Ia progenitor and explosion mechanism problem" is one of the great unsolved problems in astrophysics.
I will discuss some of the basic underlying physics and explosion models for SNe Ia, present results from multi-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of the final seconds of the star's life, and highlight how our recent discovery of optical emission from the non-radiatively shocked ejecta in young Type Ia supernova remnants opens a new window into the kinematic and compositional study of Type Ia supernova remnants.