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arXiv · 2509.19799

Jet-driven explosion of an accretion-induced white-dwarf collapse via a magnetorotational dynamo

Luciano Combi·Daniel M. Siegel·Brian D. Metzger
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Abstract

The accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a rotating white dwarf (WD) offers a potential site of millisecond pulsars/magnetars, gamma-ray bursts, and r-process nucleosynthesis. We present three-dimensional general-relativistic magneto-hydrodynamical simulations including neutrinos of magnetorotational AIC, assuming the WD is rapidly spinning with a weak magnetic field confined below its surface (likely a prerequisite for rapid rotation). Within milliseconds after core bounce, the magnetic field is exponentially amplified near the surface of the proto-neutron star (PNS). We witness the emergence of a small-scale turbulent and mean-field, large-scale MRI-driven dynamo in the neutrino-cooled centrifugally supported disk formed around the PNS, which generates bundles of large-scale toroidal field with alternating polarity. The amplified field becomes buoyant and is advected above the PNS, generating a magnetic tower that drives a mildly relativistic striped jet. The jet breaks out of the WD, clearing the way for a powerful magnetized neutron-rich wind from the disk. Although our simulation cannot follow the long-term Kelvin-Helmholtz cooling phase of the PNS, the conditions are ripe for the formation of a GRB powered by magnetar spin-down. A similar dynamo may operate in magnetorotational core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star mergers.

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Luciano Combi, Daniel M. Siegel, Brian D. Metzger. 2025-09-24. Jet-driven explosion of an accretion-induced white-dwarf collapse via a magnetorotational dynamo. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19799

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