New Insights into Type Ia Supernova Explosions from Large-Scale Simulations

Observations of Type Ia supernovae led to the discovery of Dark Energy and are one of the most promising methods of determining its properties. Most scientists believe the latter will require a much better understanding of these supernovae. We report on new insights into the way in which these stars explode from large-scale simulations carried out at the DOE NNSA ASC/Alliance Flash Center at the University of Chicago. These high-resolution, 3-D simulations were done using the FLASH code, a highly capable, modular, extensible community code in use by more than 300 scientists around the world. They led to the discovery of an entirely new mechanism for Type Ia supernovae: the gravitationally confined detonation model. We present a series of movies, showing how this explosion mechanism works. We then discuss recent observations of Type Ia supernovae that imply properties for them that are consistent with this model. Finally, we describe the rigorous and systematic program that the Flash Center has begun to validate all current models of Type Ia supernovae, and the challenges of doing Type Ia supernova simulations at the Petascale.