Hello there, I'm Javier Morán Fraile

Post doctoral researcher in astrophysics based in Heidelberg, Germany

Javier Moran-Fraile

Hello there, I'm Javier Morán Fraile

Post doctoral researcher in astrophysics based in Heidelberg, Germany

Resolved He ignition (Now more resolved)

In 3D simulations of Type IaSN, the nuclear ignitions are unresolved, that is, they take place in (at best) just a couple of cells. This means that the ignition could be the result of numerical artifacts. In all of our studies we compare the conditions found in those cells with those found in 1D simulations of resolved igntions. The flexibility of AREPO allows us to do funny things like increase the resolution folowing arbitrary criteria, so I decided to take one of my simulations of a white dwarf merger that results in a double-detonation (helium ignition triggering a second carbon detonation) and follow the region where the helium is ignited and increase the resolution in an enourmous manner.
In this video you can see the results of this simulation where we reach cell-sizes as small as 70m, resolving for the first time in 3D the ignition of the helium layer preceding a thermonuclear transient.

Density and temperature