MG14 - Talk detail

Back to previous page

 Participant

Institution

Session

Accepted

Yes

Order

Time

Talk

Title

Abstract

In our venture to obtain a fundamental basis behind the formation of super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs, we have exploited the enormous potential of magnetic fields, which can affect the structure and properties of the underlying white dwarf in a variety of ways. We have progressed from a simplistic to more rigorous and self-consistent models in the following sequence - spherically symmetric Newtonian model with constant central magnetic field; spherically symmetric general relativistic model with varying magnetic field; and finally, a model including the self-consistent departure from spherical symmetry obtained from extensive, self-consistent general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) numerical analysis. Here we particularly present the results of the GRMHD formulation, whereby we have constructed stable equilibrium models of strongly magnetized, static, white dwarfs. Interestingly, we find that significantly super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs, with mass 1.7-3.4 solar mass, are obtained for many possible field configurations, namely, poloidal, toroidal and mixed. Such super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs can be ideal progenitors of peculiar, over-luminous type Ia supernovae, which seem to invoke white dwarfs having mass greater than 2 solar mass as their most plausible progenitors. Furthermore, due to the inclusion of deformation in the white dwarfs caused by a strong magnetic field, super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs are obtained for relatively lower magnetic field strengths compared to that in the simplistic model, as speculated in our earlier work. Our work also establishes the necessity of a general relativistic formalism over a Newtonian approach, while constructing models of magnetized super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs.

Pdf file

Back to previous page