Type Ia Supernovae: Can Coriolis force break the symmetry of the gravitational confined detonation explosion mechanism?

Abstract

Nowadays the number of models aimed at explaining the Type Ia supernova phenomenon is high and discriminating between them is a must-do. In this work we explore the influence of rotation in the evolution of the nuclear flame which drives the explosion in the so called gravitational confined detonation models. Assuming that the flame starts in a point-like region slightly above the center of the white dwarf (WD) and adding a moderate amount of angular velocity to the star we follow the evolution of the deflagration using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics code. We find that the results are very dependent on the angle between the rotational axis and the line connecting the initial bubble of burned material with the center of the white dwarf at the moment of the ignition. The impact of rotation is larger for angles close to 90° because the Coriolis force on a floating element of fluid is maximum, and its principal effect is to break the symmetry of the deflagration. Such symmetry breaking weakens the convergence of the nuclear flame at the antipodes of the initial ignition volume, changing the environmental conditions around the convergence region with respect to non-rotating models. These changes seem to disfavor the emergence of a detonation in the compressed volume at the antipodes, thus compromising the viability of the so called gravitational confined detonation mechanism.