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[vsnet-j 561] Re: On helium novae (Starrfield)



Dear all,

> I do not want to get involved in the discussion about
> V445 but I do want to point out that Ron Taam and students
> looked at the consequences of helium accretion onto white
> dwarfs a long time ago. They found a detonation and a quite
> extreme explosion - if I remember correctly.  It would not
> look like this object.  

Yes, the ignition on the bottom of the accreted helium layer will lead
the central carbon ignition, which will become a SN Ia.  Such model
are called as "double detonation".  See e.g. Livne and Arnett (1995)
ApJ, 452, 62, or Woosley and Weaver (1994) ApJ, 423, 371.

So, a "helium nova" or "dwarf supernova" (Iben and Tutukov, 1991) are 
thought not to occur.

Sincerely Yours,
Hitoshi Yamaoka, Kyushu Univ., Japan
yamaoka@rc.kyushu-u.ac.jp