Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Feb 15;110(7):071102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.071102. Epub 2013 Feb 11.
Type Ia supernovae, sparked off by exploding white dwarfs of mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit, play the key role in understanding the expansion rate of the Universe. However, recent observations of several peculiar type Ia supernovae argue for its progenitor mass to be significantly super-Chandrasekhar. We show that strongly magnetized white dwarfs not only can violate the Chandrasekhar mass limit significantly, but exhibit a different mass limit. We establish from a foundational level that the generic mass limit of white dwarfs is 2.58 solar mass. This explains the origin of overluminous peculiar type Ia supernovae. Our finding further argues for a possible second standard candle, which has many far reaching implications, including a possible reconsideration of the expansion history of the Universe.
Ia 型超新星由接近钱德拉塞卡极限的质量的白矮星爆炸引发，在理解宇宙膨胀率方面起着关键作用。然而，最近对几个奇异的 Ia 型超新星的观测结果表明，其前身质量显著超过钱德拉塞卡极限。我们表明，强磁化的白矮星不仅可以显著违反钱德拉塞卡质量极限，而且还表现出不同的质量极限。我们从基础层面确定，白矮星的通用质量极限为 2.58 个太阳质量。这解释了超亮奇异 Ia 型超新星的起源。我们的发现进一步证明了可能存在第二个标准烛光，这具有许多深远的影响，包括可能重新考虑宇宙的膨胀历史。
