The challenges of coupling supernova nucleosynthesis to the central engine

Core collapse supernovae are the leading actor in the story of the cosmic origin of the chemical elements. The existing models, which assume spherical symmetry and parameterize the explosion, have been remarkably able to replicate the gross elemental pattern observed in core collapse supernovae. However, recent improvements in the modeling of core collapse supernovae, including detailed tracking of the neutrino distributions and better accounting for the multi-dimensional nature of the hydrodynamic flows, will have noticeable impact on the predicted composition and distribution of the ejecta. We will review recent explorations of these effects and discuss the means needed to achieve self-consistent models of the core collapse supernova mechanism together with the concomitant nucleosynthesis.