HLRB Project h1271
Encounters of White Dwarfs
Jacobs University Bremen
Proposing Institution
Jacobs University Bremen
Project Manager
Prof. Stephan Rosswog
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen
Abstract
Type Ia supernovae are a key tool for modern cosmology, the discovery that the universe not only expanding but even accelerating heavily relies on the use of type Ia supernovae as calibrated standard candles. The progenitor systemand explosion mechanism are, however, only incompletely understood. The main goal of this project to explore one of the main progenitor scenarios -the coalescence of two white dwarf star- in unprecedented detail. This scenario is to be simulated with a 3D Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics code that self-consistently takes the energy feedback resulting from nuclear transmutations into account. The code has been extensively tested on a 24 processor Altix 3700 where it scales extremely well. However, to resolve the length scales that are crucial for an understanding of a possibly occuring explosion much larger particle numbers are needed than can ever be run on the local facilities at the Jacobs University Bremen. The project is carried out in close collaboration with type Ia supernova researchers at MPA Garching (Hillebrandt,Roepke, Pakmor) who will use the results of these calculations as input for their codes.For the moment, I am applying for a test account to explore how well my current 3D hydrodynamics plus nuclear burning code scales on the Alix 4700 system of the LRZ.
