Gravitational Waves from Core-Collapse Supernovae

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current understanding of gravitational wave emission from core-collapse supernovae, highlighting the physical mechanisms, simulation results, and prospects for detection with current and future detectors.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of gravitational wave signals from supernovae, emphasizing the role of protoneutron star oscillations and the impact of rotation and instabilities.

Findings

Gravitational waves are mainly emitted by protoneutron star oscillations.

Detection is possible within our galaxy with current detectors, and up to a megaparsec with future instruments.

Rapid rotation can lead to non-axisymmetric instabilities detectable at larger distances.

Abstract

We summarize our current understanding of gravitational wave emission from core-collapse supernovae. We review the established results from multi-dimensional simulations and, wherever possible, provide back-of-the-envelope calculations to highlight the underlying physical principles. The gravitational waves are predominantly emitted by protoneutron star oscillations. In slowly rotating cases, which represent the most common type of the supernovae, the oscillations are excited by multi-dimensional hydrodynamic instabilities, while in rare rapidly rotating cases, the protoneutron star is born with an oblate deformation due to the centrifugal force. The gravitational wave signal may be marginally visible with current detectors for a source within our galaxy, while future third-generation instruments will enable more robust and detailed observations. The rapidly rotating models that develop non-axisymmetric instabilities may be visible up to a megaparsec distance with the third-generation detectors. Finally, we discuss strategies for multi-messenger observations of supernovae.