Burning regimes of nuclear flames in SN Ia explosions

The scaling properties and burning regimes of thermonuclear flames in Chandrasekhar mass Type Ia supernova models are discussed with a special emphasis on consequences for the delayed detonation scenario. We argue that the flame-generated turbulence is buoyancy-driven and thus conforms to Bolgiano-Obukhov scaling instead of the previously assumed Kolmogorov inertial range scaling. Predictions for the flame-surface fractal dimension and the small scale cutoff of surface perturbations change accordingly. In addition, the criterion for the transition from flamelet burning to the distributed burning regime is reformulated and consequences for the delayed detonation scenario are noted. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.