Deflagration of white dwarfs as a model for type-I supernovae

Carbon-oxygen white dwarfs may be the progenitors of type-I supernovae. Spherically-symmetric models of such dwarfs have been evolved from an artificial core incineration. The convectively unstable incinerated region was allowed to grow at a velocity prescribed by the mixing-length theory of convection. The mixing length can be varied to give different cases. In all the cases considered the dwarfs exploded and were totally disrupted. The …