Related papers: Pulsational pair instability as an explanation for…
Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the Universe. They appear connected to supernova remnants from massive stars or the merger of their remnants, and their brightness makes them temporarily detectable out to the larges…
Fresh insights and powerful numerical tools are revitalizing the theoretical exploration of the supernova mechanism. The realization that the protoneutron star is Rayleigh-Taylor unstable at various times and radii and, hence, that a…
We show that the optically-thick dusty envelopes surrounding young high-mass stars are subject to the photon bubble instability. The infrared radiation passing through the envelope amplifies magnetosonic disturbances, with growth rates in…
The observation of neutrinos from Supernova 1987A has confirmed the theoretical conjecture that these particles play a crucial role during the collapse of the core of a massive star. Only one per cent of the energy they carry away from the…
Gamma-ray bursts, discovered over three decades ago, can appear to be a hundred times as luminous as the brightest supernovae. However, there has been evidence for some time now of an association of gamma-ray bursts with supernovae of type…
Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the Universe, whose origin and mechanism is the focus of intense interest. They appear connected to supernova remnants from massive stars or the merger of their remnants, and their…
Being a superluminous supernova (SLSN), PTF12dam can be explained by a $^{56}$Ni-powered model, a magnetar-powered model or an interaction model. We propose that PTF12dam is a pulsational pair instability supernova, where the outer envelope…
We explore a simple model for the high luminosity of SN 2006gy involving photon diffusion of shock-deposited thermal energy. The distinguishing property of the model is that the large ``stellar'' radius of 160 AU required to prevent…
The extremely luminous supernova 2006gy (SN 2006gy) is among the most energetic ever observed. The peak brightness was 100 times that of a typical supernova and it spent an unheard of 250 days at magnitude -19 or brighter. Efforts to…
Gamma-ray bursts can appear to be a hundred times as luminous as supernovae, but their underlying energy source(s) have remained a mystery. However, there has been evidence for some time now of an association of gamma-ray bursts with…
It is proposed that gamma-ray bursts are created in the mergers of double neutron star binaries and black hole neutron star binaries at cosmological distances. Bursts with complex profiles and relatively long durations are the result of…
Supermassive black holes are now realized to exist in the centers of most galaxies. The recent discoveries of luminous quasars at redshifts higher than 6 require that these black holes were assembled already when the Universe was less than…
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…
Very massive stars occasionally expel material in colossal eruptions, driven by continuum radiation pressure rather than blast waves. Some of them rival supernovae in total radiative output, and the mass loss is crucial for subsequent…
Supernovae (SNe), the luminous explosions of stars, were observed since antiquity, with typical peak luminosity not exceeding 1.2x10^{43} erg/s (absolute magnitude >-19.5 mag). It is only in the last dozen years that numerous examples of…
The interaction of a supernova with a circumstellar medium (CSM) can dramatically increase the emitted luminosity by converting kinetic energy to thermal energy. In 'superluminous' supernovae (SLSNe) of Type IIn -- named for narrow hydrogen…
$\gamma$-ray bursts have baffled theorists ever since their accidental discovery at the sixties. We suggest that these bursts originate in merger of neutron star binaries, taking place at cosmological distances. These mergers release…
Supernova (SN) 2006gy was a hydrogen-rich core-collapse SN that remains one of the most luminous optical supernovae ever observed. The total energy budget (> 2 x 10^51 erg radiated in the optical alone) poses many challenges for standard SN…
Recent observations suggest that gamma ray bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows are produced by highly relativistic jets emitted in core collapse supernova explosions (SNe). The result of the event, probably, is not just a compact object plus…
We show that the luminous supernovae (SNe) associated with ultra-long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be related to the slow cooling from the explosions of hydrogen-free progenitors extended by pulsational pair-instability. In the accompanying…