Abstract
Mass-accreting white dwarfs in close binary systems are generally thought to be Type I supernova (SN I) progenitors. Low-mass (Mtot≲5 M⊙) binary X-ray sources (also known as Type II sources) equally appear to be the descendants of cataclysmic variables (CV) and thus to have been produced by the collapse of a mass-accreting white dwarf. We point out here that a single process, thermonuclear ignition inside a partially solid, carbon–oxygen white dwarf, may account for the full range of phenomena: from mildly or non-explosive collapses leaving a condensed remnant up to ‘slow’ to ‘fast’ SN I outbursts with total disruption of the parent star.
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