Explaining the most energetic supernovae with an inefficient jet-feedback mechanism

TL;DR

This paper proposes that super-energetic supernovae result from an inefficient jet-feedback mechanism during core collapse, leading to prolonged accretion and unique outflow features, differing from normal supernovae.

Contribution

It introduces a new model linking the inefficiency of jet feedback to super-energetic supernovae, emphasizing the role of core rotation and angular momentum in explosion outcomes.

Findings

Inefficient jet feedback leads to prolonged accretion in SESNe.

Predicted formation of a slow equatorial outflow with ~1000 km/s.

Key parameters include core mass, envelope mass, and angular momentum profile.

Abstract

We suggest that the energetic radiation from core-collapse super-energetic supernovae (SESNe) is due to a long lasting accretion process onto the newly born neutron star (NS), resulting from an inefficient operation of the jet-feedback mechanism. The jets that are launched by the accreting NS or black hole (BH) maintain their axis due to a rapidly rotating pre-collapse core, and do not manage to eject core material from near the equatorial plane. The jets are able to eject material from the core along the polar directions, and reduce the gravity near the equatorial plane. The equatorial gas expands, and part of it falls back over a timescale of minutes to days to prolong the jets-launching episode. According to the model for SESNe proposed in the present paper, the principal parameter that distinguishes between the different cases of CCSN explosions, such as between normal CCSNe and SESNe, is the efficiency of the jet-feedback mechanism. This efficiency in turn depends on the pre-collapse core mass, envelope mass, core convection, and most of all on the angular momentum profile in the core. One prediction of the inefficient jet-feedback mechanism for SESNe is the formation of a slow equatorial outflow in the explosion. Typical velocity and mass of this outflow are estimated to be approximately 1000 km/s and greater than about 1 solar mass, respectively, though quantitative values will have to be checked in future hydrodynamic simulations.