Modified Einstein's gravity as a possible missing link between sub- and super-Chandrasekhar type Ia supernovae

Das, Upasana and Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata (2015) Modified Einstein's gravity as a possible missing link between sub- and super-Chandrasekhar type Ia supernovae. In: JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS (5).

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Abstract

We explore the effect of modification to Einstein's gravity in white dwarfs for the first time in the literature, to the best of our knowledge. This leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting masses of white dwarfs, determined by a single model parameter. On the other hand, type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe, are believed to be triggered in white dwarfs having mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit. However, observations of several peculiar, under- and over-luminous SNeIa argue for exploding masses widely different from this limit. We argue that explosions of the modified gravity induced sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass white dwarfs result in under- and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes and, hence, serving as a missing link. Our discovery raises two fundamental questions. Is the Chandrasekhar limit unique? Is Einstein's gravity the ultimate theory for understanding astronomical phenomena? Both the answers appear to be no!

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS
Publisher:	IOP PUBLISHING LTD
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the IOP PUBLISHING LTD, TEMPLE CIRCUS, TEMPLE WAY, BRISTOL BS1 6BE, ENGLAND
Keywords:	modified gravity; supernova type Ia - standard candles; white and brown dwarfs
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2015 09:41
Last Modified:	19 Jul 2015 09:41
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/51889

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