Crucial Physical Dependencies of the Core-Collapse Supernova Mechanism

TL;DR

This study uses 2D simulations to analyze how small physical effects and initial conditions influence the outcome of core-collapse supernovae, revealing high sensitivity near criticality that explains varied simulation results.

Contribution

It demonstrates the significant impact of minor physical corrections and initial perturbations on supernova outcomes, emphasizing the importance of multi-dimensional effects near criticality.

Findings

Small physical effects can drastically change explosion outcomes near criticality.

Multi-dimensional simulations reveal sensitivities not seen in 1D models.

Different simulation groups are converging towards a realistic understanding of supernova mechanisms.

Abstract

We explore with self-consistent 2D F{\sc{ornax}} simulations the dependence of the outcome of collapse on many-body corrections to neutrino-nucleon cross sections, the nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung rate, electron capture on heavy nuclei, pre-collapse seed perturbations, and inelastic neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleon scattering. Importantly, proximity to criticality amplifies the role of even small changes in the neutrino-matter couplings, and such changes can together add to produce outsized effects. When close to the critical condition the cumulative result of a few small effects (including seeds) that individually have only modest consequence can convert an anemic into a robust explosion, or even a dud into a blast. Such sensitivity is not seen in one dimension and may explain the apparent heterogeneity in the outcomes of detailed simulations performed internationally. A natural conclusion is that the different groups collectively are closer to a realistic understanding of the mechanism of core-collapse supernovae than might have seemed apparent.