Convection Destroys the Core/Mantle Structure in Hybrid C/O/Ne White Dwarfs
arXiv: 1611.03061
Convection Destroys the Core/Mantle Structure in Hybrid C/O/Ne White Dwarfs
Abstract A hybrid C/O/Ne white dwarf (WD)—an unburned C/O core surrounded by an O/Ne/Na mantle—can be formed if the carbon flame is quenched in a super-AGB star or white dwarf merger remnant. We show that this segregated hybrid structure becomes unstable to rapid mixing within 2000 years of the onset of WD cooling. Carbon burning includes a weak reaction that removes electrons, resulting in a lower electron-to-baryon ratio ( ) in the regions processed by carbon burning compared to the unburned C/O core, making the O/Ne mantle denser than the C/O core as the WD cools. This is unstable to efficient mixing. We use the results of models with different size C/O cores to quantify the rate at which the cores mix with the mantle as they cool. In all cases, we find that the WDs undergo significant core/mantle mixing on timescales shorter than the time available to grow the WD to the Chandrasekhar mass (M Ch) by accretion. As a result, hybrid WDs that reach M Ch due to later accretion will have lower central carbon fractions than assumed thus far. We briefly discuss the implications of these results for the possibility of SNe Ia from hybrid WDs.
- University of California, Berkeley United States
- University of California, Santa Barbara United States
- University of California, San Francisco United States
- University of California System United States
- Department of Physics University of California San Diego United States
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, FOS: Physical sciences, Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, FOS: Physical sciences, Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
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