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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Super-Chandrasekhar White Dwarfs by the Evolution of Magnetized Main-sequence Stars: New Mass Limits from STARS Simulation

  • Zenia Zuraiq1
  • Banibrata Mukhopadhyay1
  • Achal Kumar2
  • Arnab Sarkar3
  • Alexander J. Hackett4
  • Projjwal Banerjee5
  • Christopher A. Tout3
5 affiliations
  1. 1Indian Institute of Science
  2. 2University of Florida
  3. 3University of Cambridge
  4. 4Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
  5. 5Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

We explore the time evolution of the magnetized main-sequence stars (MSs) to magnetized nonrotating white dwarfs (WDs) with a series of models, capturing a modified Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. We use the Cambridge Stellar Evolution Code, STARS, with modifications by introducing magnetic effects and cooling. We investigate the possible existence of stable, magnetized, massive, super-Chandrasekhar, approximately spherical WDs, away from Chandrasekhar’s mass–radius curve. These we refer to as B-WDs. They are inferred from the observations of peculiar overluminous Type Ia supernovae, e.g., SN 2003fg. We show that the classical effects of magnetic fields significantly impact MSs and their time evolution to WDs. Moreover, the magnetic field could be decisive in explaining the unusually large radius observed in some sub-Chandrasekhar WDs, e.g., SDSS J123204.19+522548.2, along with the finite temperature effect. We further investigate the stability of magnetized WDs, both below and above the Chandrasekhar limit, and confirm the possibility of super-Chandrasekhar B-WDs with new mass limits that depend on the magnetic field geometry, mass accretion from a companion, and cooling rates. Therefore, while the “Chandrasekhar limit” may be sacrosanct, its value greatly depends on the underlying physics, here the magnetic field.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{zuraiq2026superchandrasekhar,
  title = {{Super-Chandrasekhar White Dwarfs by the Evolution of Magnetized Main-sequence Stars: New Mass Limits from STARS Simulation}},
  author = {Zenia Zuraiq and Banibrata Mukhopadhyay and Achal Kumar and Arnab Sarkar and Alexander J. Hackett and Projjwal Banerjee and Christopher A. Tout},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/aea97e},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea97e},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Super-Chandrasekhar White Dwarfs by the Evolution of Magnetized Main-sequence Stars: New Mass Limits from STARS Simulation
AU  - Zenia Zuraiq
AU  - Banibrata Mukhopadhyay
AU  - Achal Kumar
AU  - Arnab Sarkar
AU  - Alexander J. Hackett
AU  - Projjwal Banerjee
AU  - Christopher A. Tout
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/08
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal Letters
DO  - 10.3847/2041-8213/aea97e
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea97e
AB  - We explore the time evolution of the magnetized main-sequence stars (MSs) to magnetized nonrotating white dwarfs (WDs) with a series of models, capturing a modified Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. We use the Cambridge Stellar Evolution Code, STARS, with modifications by introducing magnetic effects and cooling. We investigate the possible existence of stable, magnetized, massive, super-Chandrasekhar, approximately spherical WDs, away from Chandrasekhar’s mass–radius curve. These we refer to as B-WDs. They are inferred from the observations of peculiar overluminous Type Ia supernovae, e.g., SN 2003fg. We show that the classical effects of magnetic fields significantly impact MSs and their time evolution to WDs. Moreover, the magnetic field could be decisive in explaining the unusually large radius observed in some sub-Chandrasekhar WDs, e.g., SDSS J123204.19+522548.2, along with the finite temperature effect. We further investigate the stability of magnetized WDs, both below and above the Chandrasekhar limit, and confirm the possibility of super-Chandrasekhar B-WDs with new mass limits that depend on the magnetic field geometry, mass accretion from a companion, and cooling rates. Therefore, while the “Chandrasekhar limit” may be sacrosanct, its value greatly depends on the underlying physics, here the magnetic field.
SN  - 2041-8205
SN  - 2041-8213
ER  -