| Summary: | The discovery of the existence of an upper bound on the mass of a white dwarf star is considered as one of the finest of twentieth century astrophysics. On approaching this limiting mass of 1.4M⊙, known as the Chandrasekhar mass-limit, a white dwarf is believed to spark off with an explosion called type Ia supernova, which is considered to be a standard candle. But since the last decade, observations of several over-luminous, peculiar type Ia supernovae indicate that the Chandrasekhar-limit be significantly larger. By postulating noncommutativity between the components of momentum variables, we show that the mass of white dwarfs can be enhanced significantly and arrive at a new super-Chandrasekhar mass limit of about 4.68M⊙. This can provide a plausible explanation for the origin of over-luminous peculiar type Ia supernovae.
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