Christian D. Ott

Features of the Acoustic Mechanism of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

In the context of 2D, axisymmetric, multigroup, radiation/hydrodynamic simulations of core-collapse supernovae over the full 180° domain, we present an exploration of the progenitor dependence of the acoustic mechanism of explosion. All progenitor models we have tested with our Newtonian code explode. However, some of the cores left behind in our simulations, particularly for the more massive progenitors, have baryon masses that are larger than the canonical ~1.5 M☉ of well-measured pulsars. We investigate the roles of the standing accretion shock instability (SASI), the excitation of core g-modes, the generation of core acoustic power, the ejection of matter with r-process potential, the windlike character of the explosion, and the fundamental anisotropy of the blasts. We find that the breaking of spherical symmetry is central to the supernova phenomenon, the delays to explosion can be long, and the blasts, when top-bottom asymmetric, are self-collimating. We see indications that the initial explosion energies are larger for the more massive progenitors and smaller for the less massive progenitors and that the neutrino contribution to the explosion energy may be an increasing function of progenitor mass. However, the explosion energy is still accumulating by the end of our simulations and has not converged to final values. The degree of explosion asymmetry we obtain is completely consistent with that inferred from the polarization measurements of Type Ic supernovae. Furthermore, we calculate for the first time the magnitude and sign of the net impulse on the core due to anisotropic neutrino emission and suggest that hydrodynamic and neutrino recoils in the context of our asymmetric explosions afford a natural mechanism for observed pulsar proper motions.

The gravitational-wave signature of core-collapse supernovae

We review the ensemble of anticipated gravitational-wave (GW) emission processes in stellar core collapse and postbounce core-collapse supernova evolution. We discuss recent progress in the modeling of these processes and summarize most recent GW signal estimates. In addition, we present new results on the GW emission from postbounce convective overturn and protoneutron star g-mode pulsations based on axisymmetric radiation-hydrodynamic calculations. Galactic core-collapse supernovae are very rare events, but within 3-5 Mpc from Earth, the rate jumps to 1 in ~2 years. Using the set of currently available theoretical gravitational waveforms, we compute upper-limit optimal signal-to-noise ratios based on current and advanced LIGO/GEO600/VIRGO noise curves for the recent SN 2008bk which exploded at ~3.9 Mpc. While initial LIGOs cannot detect GWs emitted by core-collapse events at such a distance, we find that advanced LIGO-class detectors could put significant upper limits on the GW emission strength for such events. We study the potential occurrence of the various GW emission processes in particular supernova explosion scenarios and argue that the GW signatures of neutrino-driven, magneto-rotational, and acoustically-driven core-collapse SNe may be mutually exclusive. We suggest that even initial LIGOs could distinguish these explosion mechanisms based on the detection (or non-detection) of GWs from a galactic core-collapse supernova.

Multidimensional simulations of the accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs to neutron stars

We present 2.5D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of white dwarfs, starting from 2D rotational equilibrium configurations of a 1.46-M⊙ and a 1.92-M⊙ model. Electron capture leads to the collapse to nuclear densities of these cores within a few tens of milliseconds. The shock generated at bounce moves slowly, but steadily, outwards. Within 50100ms, the stalled shock breaks out of the white dwarf along the poles. The blast is followed by a neutrino-driven wind that develops within the white dwarf, in a cone of ∼40 ◦ opening angle about the poles, with a mass loss rate of 5-8×10 −3 M⊙yr −1 . The ejecta have an entropy on the order of 20-50 kB/baryon, and an electron fraction distribution that is bimodal. By the end of the simulations, at ≥600ms after bounce, the explosion energy has reached 3-4×10 49 erg and the total ejecta mass has reached a few times 0.001M⊙. We estimate the asymptotic explosion energies to be lower than 10 50 erg, significantly lower than those inferred for standard core collapse. The AIC of white dwarfs thus represents one instance where a neutrino mechanism leads undoubtedly to a successful, albeit weak, explosion. We document in detail the numerous effects of the fast rotation of the progenitors: The neutron

General-relativistic Simulations of Three-dimensional Core-collapse Supernovae

We study the three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamics of the post-core-bounce phase of the collapse of a 27 M_☉ star and pay special attention to the development of the standing accretion shock instability (SASI) and neutrino-driven convection. To this end, we perform 3D general-relativistic simulations with a three-species neutrino leakage scheme. The leakage scheme captures the essential aspects of neutrino cooling, heating, and lepton number exchange as predicted by radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. The 27 M_☉ progenitor was studied in 2D by Muller et al., who observed strong growth of the SASI while neutrino-driven convection was suppressed. In our 3D simulations, neutrino-driven convection grows from numerical perturbations imposed by our Cartesian grid. It becomes the dominant instability and leads to large-scale non-oscillatory deformations of the shock front. These will result in strongly aspherical explosions without the need for large-scale SASI shock oscillations. Low-l-mode SASI oscillations are present in our models, but saturate at small amplitudes that decrease with increasing neutrino heating and vigor of convection. Our results, in agreement with simpler 3D Newtonian simulations, suggest that once neutrino-driven convection is started, it is likely to become the dominant instability in 3D. Whether it is the primary instability after bounce will ultimately depend on the physical seed perturbations present in the cores of massive stars. The gravitational wave signal, which we extract and analyze for the first time from 3D general-relativistic models, will serve as an observational probe of the postbounce dynamics and, in combination with neutrinos, may allow us to determine the primary hydrodynamic instability.

3D Collapse of Rotating Stellar Iron Cores in General Relativity Including Deleptonization and a Nuclear Equation of State

We present 2D and 3D simulations of the collapse of rotating stellar iron cores in general relativity employing a nuclear equation of state and an approximate treatment of deleptonization. We compare fully general relativistic and conformally flat evolutions and find that the latter treatment is sufficiently accurate for the core-collapse supernova problem. We focus on gravitational wave (GW) emission from rotating collapse, bounce, and early postbounce phases. Our results indicate that the GW signature of these phases is much more generic than previously estimated. We also track the growth of a nonaxisymmetric instability in one model, leading to strong narrow-band GW emission.

A new open-source code for spherically symmetric stellar collapse to neutron stars and black holes

We present the new open-source spherically symmetric general-relativistic (GR) hydrodynamics code GR1D. It is based on the Eulerian formulation of GR hydrodynamics (GRHD) put forth by Romero–Ibanez–Gourgoulhon and employs radial-gauge, polar-slicing coordinates in which the 3+1 equations simplify substantially. We discretize the GRHD equations with a finite-volume scheme, employing piecewise-parabolic reconstruction and an approximate Riemann solver. GR1D is intended for the simulation of stellar collapse to neutron stars and black holes and will also serve as a testbed for modeling technology to be incorporated in multi-D GR codes. Its GRHD part is coupled to various finite-temperature microphysical equations of state in tabulated form that we make available with GR1D. An approximate deleptonization scheme for the collapse phase and a neutrino-leakage/heating scheme for the postbounce epoch are included and described. We also derive the equations for effective rotation in 1D and implement them in GR1D. We present an array of standard test calculations and also show how simple analytic equations of state in combination with presupernova models from stellar evolutionary calculations can be used to study qualitative aspects of black hole formation in failing rotating core-collapse supernovae. In addition, we present a simulation with microphysical equations of state and neutrino leakage/heating of a failing core-collapse supernova and black hole formation in a presupernova model of a 40 M_⊙ zero-age main-sequence star. We find good agreement on the time of black hole formation (within 20%) and last stable protoneutron star mass (within 10%) with predictions from simulations with full Boltzmann neutrino radiation hydrodynamics.

A New Mechanism for Gravitational-Wave Emission in Core-Collapse Supernovae

We present a new theory for the gravitational-wave signatures of core-collapse supernovae. Previous studies identified axisymmetric rotating core collapse, core bounce, postbounce convection, and anisotropic neutrino emission as the primary processes and phases for the radiation of gravitational waves. Our results, which are based on axisymmetric Newtonian supernova simulations, indicate that the dominant emission process of gravitational waves in core-collapse supernovae may be the oscillations of the protoneutron star core. The oscillations are predominantly of mode character, are excited hundreds of milliseconds after bounce, and typically last for several hundred milliseconds. Our results suggest that even nonrotating core-collapse supernovae should be visible to current LIGO-class detectors throughout the Galaxy, and depending on progenitor structure, possibly out to megaparsec distances.

Anisotropies in the Neutrino Fluxes and Heating Profiles in Two-dimensional, Time-dependent, Multigroup Radiation Hydrodynamics Simulations of Rotating Core-Collapse Supernovae

Using the 2D multi-group, flux-limited diffusion version of the code VULCAN/2D, that also incorporates rotation, we have calculated the collapse, bounce, shock formation, and early post-bounce evolutionary phases of a corecollapse supernova for a variety of initial rotation rates. This is the first series of such multi-group calculations undertaken in supernova theory with fully multi-D tools. We find that though rotation generates pole-to-equator angular anisotropies in the neutrino radiation fields, the magnitude of the asymmetries is not as large as previously estimated. The finite width of the neutrino decoupling surfaces and the significant emissivity above the � = 2/3 surface moderate the angular contrast. Moreover, we find that the radiation field is always more spherically symmetric than the matter distribution, with its plumes and convective eddies. The radiation field at a point is an integral over many sources from the different contributing directions. As such, its distribution is much smoother than that of the matter and has very little power at high spatial frequencies. We present the dependence of the angular anisotropy of the neutrino fields on neutrino species, neutrino energy, and initial rotation rate. Only for our most rapidly rotating model do we start to see qualitatively different hydrodynamics, but for

One-Armed Spiral Instability in a Slowly Rotating, Post-Bounce Supernova Core

A three-dimensional, Newtonian hydrodynamic technique is used to follow the postbounce phase of a stellar core collapse event. For realistic initial data, we have employed post-core-bounce snapshots of the iron core of a 20 M☉ star. The models exhibit strong differential rotation but have centrally condensed density stratifications. We demonstrate for the first time that such postbounce cores are subject to a so-called low-T/|W| nonaxisymmetric instability and, in particular, can become dynamically unstable to an (m = 1)-dominated spiral mode at T/|W| ~ 0.08. We calculate the gravitational wave (GW) emission by the instability and find that the emitted waves may be detectable by current and future GW observatories from anywhere in the Milky Way.

Probing the core-collapse supernova mechanism with gravitational waves

The mechanism of core-collapse supernova explosions must draw on the energy provided by gravitational collapse and transfer the necessary fraction to the kinetic and internal energy of the ejecta. Despite many decades of concerted theoretical effort, the detailed mechanism of core-collapse supernova explosions is still unknown, but indications are strong that multi-D processes lie at its heart. This opens up the possibility of probing the supernova mechanism with gravitational waves, carrying direct dynamical information from the supernova engine deep inside a dying massive star. I present a concise overview of the physics and primary multi-D dynamics in neutrino-driven, magnetorotational, and acoustically driven core-collapse supernova explosion scenarios. Discussing and contrasting estimates for the gravitational-wave emission characteristics of these mechanisms, I argue that their gravitational-wave signatures are clearly distinct and that the observation (or non-observation) of gravitational waves from a nearby core-collapse event could put strong constraints on the supernova mechanism.