Type Ia Supernova explosions in Binary Systems

Wednesday 27 May 2026, 14:00 → 15:00 Asia/Shanghai

Tsung-Dao Lee Institute/S4F-SW - Open Area (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute)

Zhengwei （正伟） Liu （柳）

Host: Darius Modirrousta-Galian
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Abstract:

Type Ia supernovae play a crucial role in studies of cosmic chemical evolution, stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis, and the accelerating expansion of the Universe. They are widely believed to originate from thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs in binary systems. However, despite extensive theoretical and observational efforts over the past decades, the nature of their progenitor systems and the exact explosion mechanisms remain poorly understood. This talk will present recent progress in constraining the progenitors and explosion mechanisms of Type Ia supernovae from both theoretical and observational perspectives, with a focus on key observables at different evolutionary and explosion stages, including supernova rates and delay-time distributions, pre-explosion companion stars, ejecta–companion interaction, circumstellar material interaction, surviving companion stars, and the properties of supernova remnants.

Biography:

Zhengwei Liu is a research professor at the Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and currently serves as the Director of the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Supernova Research. He obtained Ph.D. degree in Astrophysics from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013. From 2011 to 2013, he was a joint doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) in Munich, Germany. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy (AIfA), University of Bonn, from 2013 to 2017. In November 2017, he joined the Binary Population Synthesis Group at the Yunnan Observatories, CAS. His research interests mainly focus on supernovae, binary star evolution, and computational astrophysics.