Interplay of Neutrino Opacities in Core-collapse Supernova Simulations

TL;DR

This study investigates how different neutrino opacities affect core-collapse supernova simulations, highlighting the importance of modern nuclear electron capture and scattering processes for accurate modeling.

Contribution

It demonstrates that incorporating modern nuclear electron capture and detailed scattering processes significantly influences supernova simulation outcomes.

Findings

Modern nuclear EC is crucial during core collapse.

NIS on electrons impacts shock breakout neutrinos.

Pair emission and non-isoenergetic scattering are vital for accurate modeling.

Abstract

We have conducted a series of numerical experiments using spherically symmetric, general relativistic, neutrino radiation hydrodynamics with the code Agile-BOLTZTRAN to examine the effects of modern neutrino opacities on the development of supernova simulations. We test the effects of opacities by removing opacities or by undoing opacity improvements for individual opacities and groups of opacities. We find that improvements to electron capture (EC) on nuclei, namely EC on an ensemble of nuclei using modern nuclear structure models rather than the simpler independent-particle approximation (IPA) for EC on a mean nucleus, plays the most important role during core collapse of all tested neutrino opacities. Low-energy neutrinos emitted by modern nuclear EC preferentially escape during collapse without the energy downscattering on electrons required to enhance neutrino escape and deleptonization for the models with IPA nuclear EC. During shock breakout the primary influence on the emergent neutrinos arises from NIS on electrons. For the accretion phase, non-isoenergetic scattering on free nucleons and pair emission by $e^+e^-$ annihilation have the largest impact on the neutrino emission and shock evolution. Other opacities evaluated, including nucleon--nucleon bremsstrahlung and especially neutrino--positron scattering, have little measurable impact on neutrino emission or shock dynamics. Modern treatments of nuclear electron capture, $e^+e^-$-annihilation pair emission, and non-isoenergetic scattering on electrons and free nucleons are critical elements of core-collapse simulations of all dimensionality.