Simulating Core-collapse Supernovae: from the Central Engine to the Stellar Surface

Massive Stars, like Betelgeuse in the Constellation Orion, end their lives as a core-collapse supernova. These powerful explosions mark the birth of a neutron star and spread a wave of ejecta, including a wealth of newly-made chemical elements, into the galaxy. Many of the elements that make up ourselves and our planet were produced in past supernova explosions. The modern understanding of the supernova explosion highlights highly turbulent ejecta heated by neutrinos that are escaping from the newborn neutron star. This project will study these explosions and their ejecta with a focus on i) how the nuclear physics aspects that determine the structure of the newborn neutron star influences the supernova explosion, and ii) how the developing highly turbulent, neutrino-driven dynamics of the supernova influences the production of chemical elements by the explosion. These tasks will provide excellent training grounds for graduate students in theoretical nuclear physics and computational physics.

The investigators and their students will use the CHIMERA neutrino radiation hydrodynamic code to perform two and three dimensional simulations of the supernova explosions for a number of star masses. In order to investigate the impact of the nuclear physics of the neutron star on the explosion, models using a series of nuclear equations of state will be explored. This study will reveal the physical regimes where the nuclear equation of state has the most influence on the supernova explosions. In order to investigate the nucleosynthesis of core-collapse supernovae, the investigators will utilize post-processing analysis (via tracer particles and a large nuclear reaction network) to explore the full nucleosynthesis impact of a range of models. This will be abetted by additional simulations that include larger, more realistic nuclear reaction networks within the CHIMERA simulations. Together, these models are expected to provide the most realistic simulation to date of the elemental and isotopic production of core-collapse supernovae.