New Insights into Massive Star Explosions

Core-collapse supernovae from massive stars are among the most energetic events in the universe. They liberate a mass-energy equivalent of ~15% of a solar mass in the collapse of their progenitor star's core. The majority (~99%) of this energy is carried away by neutrinos, while (~1%) is transferred to the kinetic energy of the explosive outflow.  A smaller, yet still tremendous amount of energy is emitted in electromagnetic and gravitational waves.  The stellar collapse phenomenon and its range of outcomes pose a formidable challenge to computational modeling. I discuss recent advances made on the basis of multi-dimensional simulations and highlight the role of turbulence and multi-dimensional progenitor star structure. I also present first results from new simulations of extreme magnetorotationally powered core-collapse supernovae in the context of hypernovae and long gamma-ray bursts.

Speaker: Christian Ott, Caltech