The Sensitivity of Multidimensional Nova Calculations to the Outer Boundary Conditions

Multidimensional reactive flow models of accreted hydrogen rich envelopes on top of degenerate cold white dwarfs are very effective tools for the study of critical, non spherically symmetric, behaviors during the early stages of nova outbursts. Such models can shed light both on the mechanism responsible for the heavy element enrichment observed to characterize nova envelope matter and on the role of perturbations during the early stages of ignition of the runaway. The complexity of convective reactive flow in multi-dimensions makes the computational model itself complex and sensitive to the details of the numerics. In this study, we demonstrate that the imposed outer boundary condition can have a dramatic effect on the solution. Several commonly used choices for the outer boundary conditions are examined. It is shown that the solutions obtained from Lagrangian simulations, where the envelope is allowed to expand and mass is being conserved, are consistent with spherically symmetric solutions. In Eulerian schemes which utilize an outer boundary condition of free outflow, the outburst can be artificially quenched.Comment: 12 Pages 3 figures; Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

56Ni, Explosive Nucleosynthesis, and SNe Ia Diversity

The origin of the iron-group elements titanium to zinc in nature is understood to occur under explosive burning conditions in both Type Ia (thermonuclear) and Type II (core collapse) supernovae. In these dynamic environments, the most abundant product is found to be 56Ni ({\tau} = 8.5 days) that decays through 56Co ({\tau} = 111.5 days) to 56Fe. For the case of SNe Ia, the peak luminosities are proportional to the mass ejected in the form of 56Ni. It follows that the diversity of SNe Ia reflected in the range of peak luminosity provides a direct measure of the mass of 56Ni ejected. In this contribution, we identify and briefly discuss the factors that can influence the 56Ni mass and use both observations and theory to quantify their impact. We address specifically the variations in different stellar populations and possible distinctions with respect to SNe Ia progenitors.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Binary systems and their nuclear explosions

Peer ReviewedPreprin

Irregularity Interpreted as Low Dimension Chaos for Convective Models of W VIR Variables

AbstractLinear and nonlinear pulsational properties of convective stellar envelopes relevant for W Vir and RV Tau stars are surveyed. All models show the same trend to pass from regular to irregular behavior when a control parameter is changed (the effective temperature). The transition to irregular pulsation follows well known systematic routes to chaos (as in the radiative case). Some rich structures were found in special cases; they deserve further research. We show that the chaotic behavior is sustained even when convection is taken into account. The effect of the inclusion of time dependent convection shows up mostly as a shift of Kovacs and Buchler (Ap.J 1988) results in the parameters plane (L,Teff) towards more realistic models.</jats:p