A team from the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in Bengaluru, has shown in simulations that strong magnetic fields could allow some white dwarfs to exceed the Chandrasekhar limit of about 1.4 solar masses. The study appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and was announced by IISc on 9 October 2026.
White dwarfs are what remains of stars like the Sun. The researchers adapted STARS, a stellar evolution code from the University of Cambridge, to include magnetic fields, and followed the stars until they became white dwarfs gaining matter from a companion star. As it gains mass, the white dwarf shrinks and its magnetic field grows stronger, helping it resist gravity.
In one model, a magnetised carbon-oxygen white dwarf reached about 2.4 solar masses, while the same star without a field stopped near 1.4. The work was led by PhD student Zenia Zuraiq and Professor Banibrata Mukhopadhyay, who says the idea dates back to 2011.
The result matters because the explosions of these stars, Type Ia supernovae, are used to measure distances in the Universe. The figures come from simulated models, not observations, and the authors note that the new limits depend on the details of the magnetic physics.
