STUDY OF THE DETONATION PHASE IN THE GRAVITATIONALLY CONFINED DETONATION MODEL OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

We study the gravitationally confined detonation (GCD) model of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) through the detonation phase and into homologous expansion. In the GCD model, a detonation is triggered by the surface flow due to single-point, off-center flame ignition in carbon-oxygen white dwarfs (WDs). The simulations are unique in terms of the degree to which nonidealized physics is used to treat the reactive flow, including weak reaction rates and a time-dependent treatment of material in nuclear statistical equilibrium (NSE). Careful attention is paid to accurately calculating the final composition of material which is burned to NSE and frozen out in the rapid expansion following the passage of a detonation wave over the high-density core of the WD; and an efficient method for nucleosynthesis postprocessing is developed which obviates the need for costly network calculations along tracer particle thermodynamic trajectories. Observational diagnostics are presented for the explosion models, including abundance stratifications and integrated yields. We find that for all of the ignition conditions studied here a self-regulating process comprised of neutronization and stellar expansion results in final 56Ni masses of ∼1.1 M sun. But, more energetic models result in larger total NSE and stable Fe-peak yields. The total yield of intermediate mass elements is ∼0.1 M sun and the explosion energies are all around 1.5 x 1051 erg. The explosion models are briefly compared to the inferred properties of recent SN Ia observations. The potential for surface detonation models to produce lower-luminosity (lower 56Ni mass) SNe is discussed.