Type Ia supernovae are widely accepted to be the outcome of thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars. The mechanism leading to white dwarf explosion is a long standing open question of theoretical astrophysics. We showed that the explosions are likely the result of collisions of these stars with each other at velocities of thousands of kilometers per second.
There is a strong evidence that core-collapse supernovae are explosions of massive stars, but the explosion mechanism is a decades-long standing question. We have shown that the exlosion is likely a thermonuclear explosion triggered by the collapse of of the star' iron core.
The era of gravitational wave astronomy has arrived with the identification of three binary black holes coalescences signals by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). We study the implications from the spin measurements of binary black holes by LIGO.
