Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Joint Astrophysics Seminar

Understanding Type 1a Supernovae

Michael Zingale

SUNY Stony Brook

Type Ia supernovae are the largest thermonuclear explosions in the Universe. An emperical relationship between their peak brightness and the width of their lightcurve allows them to be used as standard candles.

This has lead to the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion rate of the Universe. Despite these successes, the theoretical picture of SNe Ia is not yet complete. In this talk, I will discuss the challenges of modeling SNe Ia, the major outstanding questions, and the future of SNe Ia simulation.