"Thermal and Nuclear Evolution of Accreting White Dwarfs"

Lars Bildsten
University of California, Santa Barbara
 

Abstract

Every star with a mass less than six times that of the Sun will become a white dwarf, a compact object with a density ten million times that of water which is supported by degenerate electrons. These are the most common endpoints of stellar evolution and, nearly one hundred years after their discovery, remain at the astrophysical frontier. They play a critical role in dating the age of the Galaxy, and, when they explode as Type Ia supernovae, indicate that the universe is accelerating. Wide field surveys are discovering large numbers of white dwarfs that allow for studies of the rarer breeds, such as those that accrete material from a binary companion. This has motivated the work I will present, which is the thermal and nuclear evolution of white dwarfs undergoing prolonged accretion of material. These mass transferring binaries are of interest as the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae and as gravitational wave sources for the LISA mission.