Imprint of modified Einstein's gravity on white dwarfs: Unifying Type Ia supernovae

Das, Upasana and Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata (2015) Imprint of modified Einstein's gravity on white dwarfs: Unifying Type Ia supernovae. In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODERN PHYSICS D, 24 (12, SI).

PDF Int_Jou_Mod_Phy-D_24-12_1544026_2015.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (170kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

We establish the importance of modified Einstein's gravity (MG) in white dwarfs (WDs) for the first time in the literature. We show that MG leads to significantly sub- and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs, depending on a single model parameter. However, conventional WDs on approaching Chandrasekhar's limit are expected to trigger Type Ia supernovae (SNeIa), a key to unravel the evolutionary history of the universe. Nevertheless, observations of several peculiar, under-and over-luminous SNeIa argue for the limiting mass widely different from Chandrasekhar's limit. Explosions of MG induced sub-and super-Chandrasekhar limiting mass WDs explain under-and over-luminous SNeIa respectively, thus unifying these two apparently disjoint sub-classes. Our discovery questions both the global validity of Einstein's gravity and the uniqueness of Chandrasekhar's limit.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODERN PHYSICS D
Publisher:	WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD, 5 TOH TUCK LINK, SINGAPORE 596224, SINGAPORE
Keywords:	Modified theories of gravity; supernovae; white dwarfs
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2016 05:40
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2016 05:40
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/53019

Actions (login required)

View Item