Revival of the Fittest: Exploding Core-Collapse Supernovae from 12 to 25 M$_{\odot}$

TL;DR

This study uses 2D simulations to explore how progenitor structure and microphysics influence core-collapse supernova explosions in stars of 12 to 25 solar masses, highlighting the importance of Si-O interfaces.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that Si-O interfaces are crucial for explosion initiation and shows that models near criticality can be pushed to explode with modest parameter adjustments.

Findings

Four models explode with specific microphysics and density features.

Non-exploding models can be nudged to explode with small parameter changes.

Exploding models reach energies of a few times 10^{50} ergs, rising over time.

Abstract

We present results of 2D axisymmetric core-collapse supernova simulations, employing the FORNAX code, of nine progenitor models spanning 12 to 25 M$_{\odot}$ and evolved over a 20,000-km grid. We find that four of the nine models explode with inelastic scattering off electrons and neutrons as well as the many-body correction to neutrino-nucleon scattering opacities. We show that these four models feature sharp Si-O interfaces in their density profiles, and that the corresponding dip in density reduces the accretion rate around the stalled shock and prompts explosion. The non-exploding models lack such a steep feature, suggesting that Si-O interface is one key to explosion. Furthermore, we show that all of the non-exploding models can be nudged to explosion with modest changes to macrophysical inputs, including moderate rotation and perturbations to infall velocities, as well as to microphysical inputs, including changes to neutrino-nucleon interaction rates, suggesting that all the models are perhaps close to criticality. Exploding models have energies of few $\times$10$^{50}$ ergs at the end of our simulation, and are rising, suggesting the need to continue these simulations over larger grids and for longer times to reproduce the energies seen in Nature. We find that the morphology of the explosion contributes to the explosion energy, with more isotropic ejecta producing larger explosion energies. However, we do not find evidence for the Lepton-number Emission Self-Sustained Asymmetry. Finally, we look at PNS properties and explore the role of dimension in our simulations. We find that convection in the proto-neutron star (PNS) produces larger PNS radii as well as greater "$\nu_\mu$" luminosities in 2D compared to 1D.