A PARAMETER-SPACE STUDY OF CARBON–OXYGEN WHITE DWARF MERGERS

The merger of two carbon–oxygen white dwarfs can lead to either a spectacular transient, stable nuclear burning or a massive, rapidly rotating white dwarf. Simulations of mergers have shown that the outcome strongly depends on whether the white dwarfs are similar or dissimilar in mass. In the similar-mass case, both white dwarfs merge fully and the remnant is hot throughout, while in the dissimilar case, the more massive, denser white dwarf …