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Recurrent Novae And Type Ia Supernova Progenitors, Ashley Sara Pagnotta
Recurrent Novae And Type Ia Supernova Progenitors, Ashley Sara Pagnotta
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
We investigated two types of stellar explosions, recurrent novae (RNe) and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). SNe Ia are the most useful distance markers in astrophysics, but we do not know the identity of their progenitor systems. RNe are good progenitor candidates that consist of a white dwarf (WD) that accretes material from a companion star. The material builds on the surface of the WD until a runaway thermonuclear eruption is triggered, which ejects the accreted material and causes the system to brighten dramatically. We studied the demographics of the nova population and concluded that approximately 25% of classical novae …