Hydrodynamical He Shell Burning in AM CVn Systems: New Results on SNe .Ia

Ken Shen (UCSB) - Oct 19, 2009 at 12:10 pm

AM CVn systems are ultracompact binaries consisting of a He donor and a WD accretor. I will discuss the nuclear burning that results from the He mass transfer, which can possibly culminate in a detonation and a faint thermonuclear .Ia supernova. I will also discuss current work on the appearance of these explosive events, using a hydrodynamic simulation coupled to a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. The resulting synthetic light curves and spectra will hopefully guide current surveys such as Pan-STARRS-1 and the Palomar Transient Factory, which may be able to observe a few of these SNe .Ia every year.

The seminar will be held in 544 Campbell Hall.


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