Parametric initial conditions for core-collapse supernova simulations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a parametric method to construct initial progenitor models for core-collapse supernova simulations, enabling exploration of explosion conditions without relying on stellar evolution models.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel parametric approach to generate supernova progenitor models and validate it through relativistic hydrodynamic simulations, offering an alternative to traditional stellar evolution-based models.

Findings

Small central entropy models can explode in spherical symmetry.

High entropy in Si/O layer correlates with larger explosion energy.

The method reliably reproduces key features of supernova progenitors.

Abstract

We investigate a method to construct parametrized progenitor models for core-collapse supernova simulations. Different from all modern core-collapse supernova studies, which rely on progenitor models from stellar evolution calculations, we follow the methodology of Baron & Cooperstein (1990) to construct initial models. Choosing parametrized spatial distributions of entropy and electron fraction as a function of mass coordinate and solving the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, we obtain the initial density structures of our progenitor models. First, we calculate structures with parameters fitting broadly the evolutionary model s11.2 of Woosley et al. (2002). We then demonstrate the reliability of our method by performing general relativistic hydrodynamic simulations in spherical symmetry with the isotropic diffusion source approximation to solve the neutrino transport. Our comprehensive parameter study shows that initial models with a small central entropy ($\lesssim 0.4\,k_B$ nucleon$^{-1}$) can explode even in spherically symmetric simulations. Models with a large entropy ($\gtrsim 6\,k_B$ nucleon$^{-1}$) in the Si/O layer have a rather large explosion energy ($\sim 4\times 10^{50}$ erg) at the end of the simulations, which is still rapidly increasing.