Effect of dynamical noncommutativity on the limiting mass of white dwarfs

• Main Authors: Sayan Kumar Pal, Partha Nandi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-10-01
• Series: Physics Letters B
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269319305738

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.