Explosion mechanisms and progenitor systems of thermonuclear supernovae

Determine the specific explosion mechanisms of white dwarfs that produce thermonuclear supernovae and identify the progenitor systems responsible for the different thermonuclear supernova subtypes, including Type Iax, to resolve how the fusion explosion of a white dwarf occurs across these classes.

Background

Thermonuclear supernovae are widely accepted to arise from fusion explosions of white dwarfs in binary systems, but despite extensive observational and theoretical progress, key aspects of how these explosions ignite and proceed remain unsettled. The diversity of thermonuclear subtypes discovered by modern transient surveys, including the peculiar Type Iax subclass, motivates a clear identification of the underlying explosion physics.

Resolving both the explosion mechanism(s) and the progenitor channels for each thermonuclear subtype is central to connecting observed phenomenology (e.g., luminosity, velocities, spectral features) with physical models (deflagration, detonation, or hybrid scenarios) and to understanding the evolutionary pathways leading to ignition.