Center Of White Dwarf Research Articles

Rayleigh–Taylor instability in compressible ultra-relativistic degenerate strongly coupled plasma

Dense stars (e.g., white dwarfs) are composed of mainly ultra-relativistic degenerate electrons and strongly coupled ions subjected to a gravitational field. Considering the physical conditions of such systems, in this paper, we investigate the linear Rayleigh–Taylor (R–T) instability in a compressible ultra-relativistic degenerate strongly coupled plasma (SCP) using the generalized hydrodynamic fluid model. The electron fluid is assumed to be inertialess, ultra-relativistic degenerate, and weakly coupled, while the ion fluid is treated as non-degenerate and strongly coupled. The compressibility effects are considered for the ion fluid in terms of the Coulomb coupling parameter and internal energy. The dispersion properties of the R–T instability have been analyzed using the normal mode analysis. For short wavelength perturbations, the R–T instability excites in the presence of compressibility and degeneracy of ultra-relativistic electrons; otherwise, the characteristic internal wave propagates in the plasma medium. The compressibility and strong coupling effects play a decisive role in suppressing the R–T modes in dense degenerate SCP. In the high-frequency kinetic limit, the instability region is observed to be shorter than the low-frequency hydrodynamic limit. The effects of ultra-relativistic degenerate electrons are almost negligible on the growth rates. However, they significantly modify the dispersion properties and R–T instability criterion. The astrophysical applications of the present work have been discussed in the high-density ultra-relativistic plasmas in the finite flame thickness near the center of white dwarfs.

Effects of strong magnetic fields and rotation on white dwarf structure

In this work we compute models for relativistic white dwarfs in the presence of strong magnetic fields. These models possibly contribute to super-luminous SNIa. With an assumed axi-symmetric and poloidal magnetic field, we study the possibility of existence of super-Chandrasekhar magnetized white dwarfs by solving numerically the Einstein-Maxwell equations, by means of a pseudo-spectral method. We obtain a self-consistent rotating and non-rotating magnetized white dwarf models. According to our results, a maximum mass for a static magnetized white dwarf is 2.13 $\rm{M_{\odot}}$ in the Newtonian case and 2.09 $\rm{M_{\odot}}$ while taking into account general relativistic effects. Furthermore, we present results for rotating magnetized white dwarfs. The maximum magnetic field strength reached at the center of white dwarfs is of the order of $10^{15}\,$G in the static case, whereas for magnetized white dwarfs, rotating with the Keplerian angular velocity, is of the order of $10^{14}\,$G.