Linear analysis on the growth of non-spherical perturbations in supersonic accretion flows

TL;DR

This paper presents a linear analysis of how non-spherical perturbations grow in supersonic accretion flows relevant to core-collapse supernovae, revealing significant amplification and oscillatory behavior that could influence shock revival.

Contribution

It provides a novel linear analytical framework for understanding the growth of non-spherical perturbations in accretion flows during supernova core collapse.

Findings

Density perturbations can be amplified by a factor of 30.

Growth rate of perturbations is proportional to spherical harmonic index l.

Perturbations oscillate with frequencies similar to standing accretion shock instability.

Abstract

We analyzed the growth of non-spherical perturbations in supersonic accretion flows. We have in mind the application to the post-bounce phase of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Such non-spherical perturbations have been suggested by a series of papers by Arnett, who has numerically investigated violent convections in the outer layers of pre-collapse stars. Moreover, Couch & Ott (2013) demonstrated in their numerical simulations that such perturbations may lead to a successful supernova even for a progenitor that fails to explode without the fluctuations. This study investigated the linear growth of perturbations during the infall onto a stalled shock wave. The linearized equations are solved as an initial and boundary value problem with the use of Laplace transform. The background is a Bondi accretion flow whose parameters are chosen to mimic the 15 $\mathrm{M_\odot}$ progenitor model by Woosley & Heger (2007), which is supposed to be a typical progenitor of CCSNe. We found that the perturbations that are given at a large radius grow as they flow down to the shock radius; the density perturbations can be amplified by a factor of 30, for example. We analytically showed that the growth rate is proportional to $l$, the index of the spherical harmonics. We also found that the perturbations oscillate in time with frequencies that are similar to those of the standing accretion shock instability. This may have an implication for shock revival in CCSNe, which will be investigated in our forthcoming paper in more detail.