Astro Seminar: Stuart Sim

Date and Time : 24.02.2025 at 2:15 PM

Speaker : Stuart Sim (QUB)

Place : Auditorium A

Title: “Thermonuclear supernovae: how to blow up a white dwarf”

Abstract: Aside from being spectacular displays in their own right, Type Ia 
supernova explosions have a key role in measuring the expansion history 
of the Universe and synthesizing the iron group elements. But what is 
their origin? That thermonuclear supernovae arise from exploding white dwarfs 
is relatively well-established but the manner in which the explosion is ignited and 
how this can be determined from what we observe remain hotly debated issues.

I will discuss the theoretical modelling of thermonuclear supernovae with particular focus
on how our work on radiative transfer simulations can be used to test explosion scenarios. I will argue 
that understanding the diversity of thermonuclear supernovae requires us to 
investigate a variety of different progenitor scenarios and review selected results from our 
work on both Chandrasekhar-mass white-dwarf explosion scenarios and sub-Chandrasekhar 
models.