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Paper: Helium Stars as Supernova Progenitor
Volume: 391, Hydrogen-Deficient Stars
Page: 359
Authors: Waldman, R.; Yungelson, L.R.; Barkat, Z.
Abstract: We follow the evolution of helium stars of initial mass (2.2 − 2.5)M, and show that they undergo off-center carbon burning, which leaves behind ∼0.01M of unburnt carbon in the inner part of the core. When the carbon-oxygen core grows to Chandrasekhar mass, the amount of left-over carbon is sufficient to ignite thermonuclear runaway. At the moment of explosion, the star will possess an envelope of several 0.1M, consisting of He, C, and possibly some H, perhaps producing a kind of peculiar SN. Based on the results of Waldman & Barkat (2007) for accreting white dwarfs, we expect to get thermonuclear runaway at a broad range of ρc ≈ (1 − 6) × 109g cm−3, depending on the amount of residual carbon. We verified the feasibility of this scenario by showing that in a close binary system with initial masses (8.5+7.7)M and initial period of 150 day the primary produces a helium remnant of 2.3M that evolves further like the model we considered.
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