Disruption of Supernovae and would-be "Direct Collapsars"

TL;DR

This paper proposes a mechanism where supernovae are disrupted by focused electromagnetic beams generated during core collapse, affecting their luminosity and challenging their use as standard candles for cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electromagnetic disruption mechanism for supernovae, impacting their luminosity and questioning their role in precision cosmology.

Findings

Supernova luminosity is significantly affected by electromagnetic beams from core collapse.

The mechanism explains variability in supernova brightness and challenges their use as standard candles.

It predicts observable signatures months before core collapse.

Abstract

The speed of an intensity pattern of polarization currents on a circle, induced within a star by its rotating, magnetized core, will exceed the speed of light for a sufficiently large star, and/or rapid rotation, and will, in turn, generate focused electromagnetic beams which disrupt them. Upon core collapse within such a star, the emergence of these beams will concentrate near the two rotational poles, driving jets of matter into material previously ejected via the same excitation mechanism acting through the pre-core-collapse rotation of its magnetized stellar core(s). This interpenetration of material, light-days in extent from the progenitor, produces a significant fraction of the total supernova luminosity, and the magnitude and time of maximum of this contribution both vary with the progenitor's rotational orientation. The net effect is to render supernovae unusable as standard candles without further detailed understanding, leaving no firm basis, at this time, to favor any cosmology, including those involving "Dark Energy." Thus we are not now, nor have we ever been, in an era of precision cosmology, nor are we likely to be anytime soon. Mass loss induced through the same mechanism also keeps aggregates of gas and plasma in the early Universe, or at any other epoch, from forming the ~billion solar mass stars which have been suggested to produce ~billion solar mass black holes via "direct collapse," but can also provide a signature to predict core collapse some months in advance.