Mass-accreting white dwarfs and type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play a prominent role in understanding the evolution of Universe. They are thought to be thermonuclear explosions of mass-accreting carbon-oxygen white dwarfs (CO WDs) in binaries, although the mass donors of the accreting WDs are still not well determined. In this article, I review recent studies on mass-accreting WDs, including H- and He-accreting WDs. I also review currently most studied progenitor models of SNe Ia, i.e., the single-degenerate model (including the WD+MS channel, the WD+RG channel and the WD+He star channel), the double-degenerate model (including the violent merger scenario) and the sub-Chandrasekhar mass model. Recent progress on these progenitor models is discussed, including the initial parameter space for producing SNe Ia, the binary evolutionary paths to SNe Ia, the progenitor candidates of SNe Ia, the possible surviving companion stars of SNe Ia, and some observational constraints, etc. Some other potential progenitor models of SNe Ia are also summarized, including the hybrid CONe WD model, the core-degenerate model, the double WD collision model, the spin-up/spin-down model, and the model of WDs near black holes.To date, it seems that two or more progenitor models are needed to explain the observed diversity among SNe Ia.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figures, invited reviews for Res. Astron. Astrophys. (RAA), in pres

Second-order cosmological perturbations. III. Produced by scalar-scalar coupling during radiation-dominated stage

We study the 2nd-order scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations in Robertson-Walker (RW) spacetime in synchronous coordinates during the radiation dominated (RD) stage. The dominant radiation is modeled by a relativistic fluid described by a stress tensor $T_{\mu\nu}=(\rho+p)U_\mu U_\nu+g_{\mu\nu}p$ with $p= c^2_s \rho$, and the 1st-order velocity is assumed to be curlless. We analyze the solutions of 1st-order perturbations, upon which the solutions of 2nd-order perturbation are based. We show that the 1st-order tensor modes propagate at the speed of light and are truly radiative, but the scalar and vector modes do not. The 2nd-order perturbed Einstein equation contains various couplings of 1st-order metric perturbations, and the scalar-scalar coupling is considered in this paper. We decompose the 2nd-order Einstein equation into the evolution equations of 2nd-order scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations, and the energy and momentum constraints. The coupling terms and the stress tensor of the fluid together serve as the effective source for the 2nd-order metric perturbations. The equation of covariant conservation of stress tensor is also needed to determine $\rho$ and $U^\mu$. By solving this set of equations up to 2nd order analytically, we obtain the 2nd-order integral solutions of all the metric perturbations, density contrast and velocity. To use these solutions in applications, one needs to carry out seven types of the numerical integrals. We perform the residual gauge transformations between synchronous coordinates up to 2nd order, and identify the gauge-invariant modes of 2nd-order solutions.Comment: 75 pages, 1 figure. We make the discussion below Eq.(6.8) clearer in this updated versio

Cross Section Evaluation by Spinor Integration II: The massive case in 4D

In this paper, we continue our study of calculating the cross section by the spinor method, i.e., performing the phase space integration using the spinor method. We have focused on the case where the physical momenta are massive and in pure 4D. We established the framework of such a new method and presented several examples, including two real progresses: $Z^0\to l^+ l^- H$ and $\bar{qq} \to \bar{ff} H^0$.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure;further comments and references adde