Chandrasekhar made the startling discovery about nine decades back that the mass of compact object white dwarf has a limiting value once nuclear fusion reactions stop therein. This is the Chandrasekhar mass-limit, which is ∼ 1.4M⊙ for a nonrotating non-magnetized white dwarf. On approaching this limiting mass, a white dwarf is believed to spark off with an explosion called type Ia supernova, which is considered to be a standard candle. However, observations of several over-luminous, peculiar type Ia supernovae indicate the Chandrasekhar mass-limit to be significantly larger. By considering noncommutativity among the components of position and momentum variables, hence uncertainty in their measurements, at the quantum scales, we show that the mass of white dwarfs could be significantly super-Chandrasekhar and thereby arrive at a new mass-limit ∼ 2.6M⊙, explaining a possible origin of over-luminous peculiar type Ia supernovae. The idea of noncommutativity, apart from the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, is there for quite sometime, without any observational proof however. Our finding offers a plausible astrophysical evidence of noncommutativity, arguing for a possible second standard candle, which has many far-reaching implications.

中文翻译：

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非对易几何中白矮星的显着超钱德拉塞卡质量极限

大约九十年前，钱德拉塞卡惊人地发现，一旦核聚变反应停止，致密物体白矮星的质量就会出现极限值。这就是钱德拉塞卡质量极限，即 ～ 1.4米⊙对于非旋转非磁化白矮星。在接近这个极限质量时，据信白矮星会引发称为 Ia 型超新星的爆炸，这被认为是标准烛光。然而，对几个过亮、奇特的 Ia 型超新星的观测表明，钱德拉塞卡的质量极限要大得多。通过考虑位置和动量变量分量之间的非对易性，因此它们的测量在量子尺度上的不确定性，我们表明白矮星的质量可能明显超钱德拉塞卡，从而达到一个新的质量极限 ～ 2.6米⊙，解释了过度发光的奇特 Ia 型超新星的可能起源。除了海森堡的测不准原理之外，不可交换性的概念已经存在了相当长的一段时间，但是没有任何观察证据。我们的发现提供了一个似是而非的天体物理学证据，证明了可能存在第二个标准蜡烛，这具有许多深远的影响。