ICTS

Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are among the brightest astrophysical events in the cosmos and serve as important tools in cosmology. It has been long understood that SNe Ia originate from the thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs. However, the textbook archetype model for a SN Ia, consisting of the detonation of a near-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf accreting mass from a non-degenerate stellar companion faces numerous challenges. It is also possible that two white dwarfs in a binary system may merge, in a mechanism referred to as the double-degenerate channel, which may actually account for the majority of SNe Ia. The key problems surrounding the double-degenerate channel are to explain the origin of the detonation, and to explain how these may account for systems which are actually observed in nature. In this talk, I will explain my recent research, in which I led an effort which identified a new mechanism for detonation in white dwarf mergers. I will also briefly present my future plans to build upon and extend my thesis work into more extreme spacetime geometries, including the simulation of binary neutron stars and binary black holes.