Three Dimensional Modeling of Core-Collapse Supernovae

Adam Burrows, Princeton University

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Core-collapse supernovae dramatically announce the death of massive stars and the birth of neutron stars, pulsars, and black holes. They are the sites where most of the heavy elements of Nature are created. Viewed as a nuclear physics laboratory, core-collapse supernovae produce some of the highest densities and energies in the Universe, and during this violent process a combination of nuclear physics, turbulent hydrodynamics, radiation transport, and neutrino physics determines whether and how the star explodes. However, to date the puzzle of the precise mechanism of explosion has not been cracked. A thesis of this team is that a fundamental impediment to progress over the last few decades may have been the lack of access to codes, computers, and resources with which to properly simulate the collapse phenomenon. This could explain the agonizingly slow march since the 1960's towards demonstrating a robust mechanism of explosion. However, with the state-of-the-art computer code his team has recently developed, the time may now be ripe to make a final assault on this central problem in astrophysics. Going to fully three-dimensional neutrino radiation-hydrodynamics and employing the best neutrino and nuclear physics may together be the keys to demonstrating and understanding the generic core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism. Since these supernova simulations lend themselves easily to public and school outreach, the team plans to generate video products for public talks and web-based distribution. Core-collapse supernovae probe the nuclear and particle physics of matter at super-nuclear density, high temperature, and at extremes of isospin. This project supports the experimental nuclear physics program of the NSF by exploring nucleosynthesis in astrophysical explosions, the properties of the neutrino, and the equation of state of nuclear matter. The numerical simulations connect directly with the lower-energy programs of FRIB and FAIR, the high-energy experiments carried out at RHIC and the LHC, and the hyperon-hyperon and hyperon-nucleon programs of JPARC, GSI, JLAB, and NICA. In addition, a solution to the core-collapse supernova problem will benefit ongoing efforts of observers and instrument designers in the U.S. and around the world engaged in projects to determine the origin of the elements, measure gravitational waves (LIGO), and interpret laboratory nuclear reaction rate measurements in light of stellar nucleosynthesis.