Impacts of Multidimensional Progenitor Perturbations on Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

TL;DR

This study investigates how multidimensional progenitor perturbations influence core-collapse supernova explosions using 2D simulations, finding minimal impact from initial turbulence and structure variations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that progenitor structure and turbulence have limited effects on explosion outcomes in 2D supernova models, contrasting with previous findings.

Findings

Shock revival times are similar across models despite structural differences.

Turbulent energy from progenitor perturbations does not significantly affect explosion development.

Stochastic variations are below the threshold of numerical detection, indicating limited impact of initial turbulence.

Abstract

Numerical studies of core-collapse supernovae have demonstrated the importance of non-radial motions in pre-collapse progenitors on the explosion outcome. We use the CHIMERA neutrino radiation hydrodynamics code running seven two-dimensional simulations of 15 solar mass progenitors with different progenitor structures introduced by different one and two-dimensional pre-collapse stellar evolution environments to examine the impacts of stellar structure and non-spherical motion in the pre-collapse progenitor on the development of explosions in 2D core-collapse supernova simulations. We compare the explosion evolution of these models in terms of shock dynamics, diagnostic energy, neutrino heating, accretion, explosion geometry, nuclear abundances, and turbulent convection. We also analyze how stochasticity impacts our simulations. Contrary to results reported by other groups examining the impacts of multi-dimensional progenitors, we observe similar shock revival times and explosion development in our simulations despite differences in initial compositions and structures. We find no discernible impact from turbulent energy introduced by the multi-D structures in the progenitor as the models evolve from the stalled shock to explosion. We attribute this to the turbulence generated in the post-shock region by shock deformation and standing accretion shock instability to a saturation level before the neutrino-driven convection dominates the post-shock dynamics. An examination of model stochasticity shows that any prior expected impacts on explosive outcome due to convection-related perturbations lie below the detectable threshold of numerical variation.