Nuclear physics with spherically symmetric supernova models

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of spherically symmetric supernova models using Boltzmann neutrino transport, highlighting their insights into core collapse, neutrino signals, and nucleosynthesis, despite the challenges in modeling explosion mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of spherically symmetric models with Boltzmann neutrino transport in understanding supernova dynamics and neutrino signals, emphasizing the importance of different physics in various phases.

Findings

Neutrino signals reflect different evolutionary phases.

Neutrino-driven ejecta can have electron fractions > 0.5.

Preliminary 3D MHD simulations illustrate complex dynamics.

Abstract

Few years ago, Boltzmann neutrino transport led to a new and reliable generation of spherically symmetric models of stellar core collapse and postbounce evolution. After the failure to prove the principles of the supernova explosion mechanism, these sophisticated models continue to illuminate the close interaction between high-density matter under extreme conditions and the transport of leptons and energy in general relativistically curved space-time. We emphasize that very different input physics is likely to be relevant for the different evolutionary phases, e.g. nuclear structure for weak rates in collapse, the equation of state of bulk nuclear matter during bounce, multidimensional plasma dynamics in the postbounce evolution, and neutrino cross sections in the explosive nucleosynthesis. We illustrate the complexity of the dynamics using preliminary 3D MHD high-resolution simulations based on parameterized deleptonization. With established spherically symmetric models we show that typical features of the different phases are reflected in the predicted neutrino signal and that a consistent neutrino flux leads to electron fractions larger than 0.5 in neutrino-driven supernova ejecta.