Impact of Neutrino Opacities on Core-Collapse Supernova Simulations

TL;DR

This study systematically examines how different neutrino opacities influence core-collapse supernova simulations, highlighting their impact on explosion outcomes and validating the IDSA scheme against established results.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of individual neutrino opacity effects in both 1D and 2D CCSN simulations using the IDSA scheme, advancing understanding of their role in supernova modeling.

Findings

Certain neutrino opacities significantly affect explosion likelihood.

Validation of the IDSA scheme with standard opacities against previous results.

Identification of key opacities influencing supernova dynamics.

Abstract

Accurate description of neutrino opacities is central both to the core-collapse supernova (CCSN) phenomenon and to the validity of the explosion mechanism itself. In this work, we study in a systematic fashion the role of a variety of well-selected neutrino opacities in CCSN simulations where multi-energy, three-flavor neutrino transport is solved by the isotropic diffusion source approximation (IDSA) scheme. To verify our code, we first present results from one-dimensional (1D) simulations following core-collapse, bounce, and up to ~ 250 ms postbounce of a 15 $M_{\odot}$ star using a standard set of neutrino opacities by Bruenn (1985). Detailed comparison with published results supports the reliability of our three-flavor IDSA scheme using the standard opacity set. We then investigate in 1D simulations how the individual opacity update leads to the difference from the base-line run with the standard opacity set. By making a detailed comparison with previous work, we check the validity of our implementation of each update in a step-by-step manner. Individual neutrino opacities with the largest impact on the overall evolution in 1D simulations are selected for a systematic comparison in our two-dimensional (2D) simulations. Special emphasis is devoted to the criterion of explodability in the 2D models. We discuss the implications of these results as well as the limitations and requirements for future towards more elaborate CCSN modeling.