简介: |
The explosion mechanism of type Ia supernovae is unknown. We argue that the direct white dwarf-white dwarf collisions in the field multiple stellar systems is the most promising mechanism to explain the SN Ia population. Not only do collisions explain several robust features across the entire SN Ia population, but also their predictions of the bi-modal Ni56 distributions in the ejecta are recently discovered observationally. I will discuss key observational tests on the collision models enabled by the All Sky Automatic Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) -- the most successful bright supernova survey at present. With the unbiased supernova searches of ASAS-SN, we have also discovered ASASSN-15lh -- a type I super-luminous supernova that is the most luminous supernova ever recorded.
Bio: Prof. Subo Dong is currently a Youth Qianren Research Professor at Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University. He obtained his B.Sc. in astronomy from Nanjing University in 2004 and Ph.D. in astronomy from the Ohio State University in 2009. He was a NASA Carl Sagan and Ralph E. and Doris M. Hansmann postdoctoral fellow at Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton between 2009 and 2013. His main research interests include extrasolar planets, supernovae, gravitational microlensing, dynamics and time-domain astronomy. |
