2016/07/31 by Prasanta Bera, Dipankar Bhattacharya, D. Bhattacharya · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Chandrasekhar limit #Classical mechanics #Degenerate energy levels #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Instability #Magnetic field #Magnetohydrodynamics #Mechanics #Perturbation (astronomy) #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Rotational symmetry #Stars #Stellar rotation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Supernova #White dwarf #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2979
10 pages, 10 figures, published in MNRAS (2017) 465, 4026
openalex publication_date 2016/11/16 · arxiv created 2017/09/28 · arxiv updated 2017/09/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In the presence of a strong magnetic field, a stellar equilibrium configuration, aided by the Lorentz force, can support a larger mass than a non-magnetic one. This has been considered a possible explanation of the super-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs giving rise to overluminous Type-Ia supernovae. We present here linear and non-linear perturbation studies of such strongly magetized configurations and show that axisymmetric configurations with poloidal or toroidal fields are unstable. The numerical evolution of the perturbations shows instability after about an Alfvén crossing time. This time-scale is very short for the magnetically supported super-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs. Uniform rotation about the symmetry axis can reduce the growth rate but cannot stabilize the super-massive configurations. It is concluded that long-lived super-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs supported by magnetic field are unlikely to occur in nature.