Project description
Research delves deeper into white dwarf explosions
The explosive deaths of white dwarfs are essential for heavy element nucleosynthesis, galaxy feedback and binary system evolution. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) help measure cosmological distances and were instrumental in the discovery of the accelerating universe. Recent surveys suggest SNe Ia may not be the only way white dwarfs explode, indicating potential populations of faint, fast-evolving explosions caused by interactions with intermediate-mass black holes, neutron star mergers or triple-system collisions. Funded by the European Research Council, the CosmicLeap project aims to understand these explosions better. By gathering a large sample of white dwarf events, applying machine learning techniques and determining explosion rates in various galaxies, CosmicLeap will elucidate the diversity of these events and their implications for nucleosynthesis, cosmology and future gravitational wave detections.
Objective
The explosive deaths of white dwarfs are essential in heavy element nucleosynthesis, galaxy feedback, and for understanding the evolution of binary systems. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are famous for their key role as cosmological-distance indicators and in the discovery of the accelerating Universe. Recent high-cadence surveys, and theoretical advances, have hinted that SNe Ia may not be the dominant way in which white dwarfs explode, with the potential existence of large populations of faint and rapidly evolving white-dwarf explosions. These unexplored classes of exotic transients may come from white dwarfs being torn apart by intermediate-mass black holes, mergers with neutron stars, or collisions in triple systems, but the mapping between explosions and observed transients is undetermined.
This project aims at providing the first complete census of the multiple ways that white dwarfs explode by mapping their observations to their explosion physics and constraining their diversity. This sample will be crucial for defining optimal samples of SNe Ia for cosmology, as well as determining the rates and contributions of white-dwarf explosions to the origin of the elements. We will achieve this by i) obtaining the largest ever, rapidly discovered and spectroscopically confirmed sample, of white-dwarf transients with detailed follow-up observations, ii) the application of machine-learning techniques (e.g. neural-network emulators) for rapid comparison to sophisticated explosion models, and iii) the determination of the rates and diversity of their explosions in different galaxy environments. The confirmation and exploration of the multiple explosion channels for producing normal SNe Ia and exotic white-dwarf transients will have major implications for their nucleosynthetic yields, their use in cosmology, as well as predicting rates of double white dwarfs that will be detected in huge numbers in the Milky Way by the gravitational-wave detector, LISA.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography census
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy physical cosmology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
D02 CX56 Dublin
Ireland
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