Type Ia Supernovae are thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs in binary steallr systems. These supernovae are important tools of modern physics ("standard candles") used to measure cosmological distances. There has been a remarkable progress in understandig the physics of Type Ia Supernova (SNIa) explosions. Yet many crucial elements of the explosion mechanism, such as ignition, turbulent flame propagation, and deflagration-to-detonation transition are not understood at the level required for "first principles" numerical simulations of SNIa. I will talk about physics of Type Ia supernovae and challenges of numerical modeling of these objects.

Alexei Khokhlov