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Abb. 1:
Simon White presents the Certificate for the Kippenhahn-Prize to Tyrone Woods
© MPA.
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In his paper, Tyrone Woods proposed a novel approach to study the progenitors of
Type Ia supernovae. The question of which progenitor channel is responsible for
the majority of Type Ia supernovae remains unresolved, with single and double
degenerate scenarios remaining the leading contenders. The former would imply a
large population of hot, accreting white dwarf stars, which would contribute
significantly to the ionizing UV radiation. Modelling the expected emission,
Tyrone showed that one can constrain the contribution of the single degenerate
channel to the SNIa rate in early-type galaxies from upper limits on the
luminosity in certain helium recombination lines. This theoretical work
triggered a large effort by a bigger group of scientists to search for this
recombination line in the optical spectra of passive galaxies.
The Rudolph Kippenhahn prize is awarded annually to the best scientific paper
written by an MPA student. This year, the committee had to appraise eight
submissions – there were actually nine, but one will be eligible for next year’s
prize. The prize is awarded jointly by the institute and its former director,
after whom it is named, to recognize originality, a large impact on science but
also the quality of writing for a publication to which students themselves made
a substantial contribution.
Original publication:
He II recombination lines as a test of the nature of SN Ia progenitors in
elliptical galaxies
Woods, T.E. and M. Gilfanov Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 432, 1640-1650
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