Related papers: Supernova Shock Breakout from a Red Supergiant
Three-dimensional (3D), time dependent numerical simulations, of flow of matter in stars, now have sufficient resolution to be fully turbulent. The late stages of the evolution of massive stars, leading up to core collapse to a neutron star…
Some massive stars experience episodic and intense mass loss phases with fluctuations in the luminosity. Ejected material forms circumstellar matter around the star, and the subsequent core collapse results in a Type IIn supernova that is…
We present the discovery of a red supergiant star that exploded as supernova 2003gd in the nearby spiral galaxy M74. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Gemini Telescope imaged this galaxy 6 to 9 months before the supernova explosion…
While an understanding of supernova explosions will require sophisticated large-scale simulations, it is nevertheless possible to outline the most basic features of the neutrino emission resulting from stellar core collapse with a…
Hydrogen-rich core collapse supernovae, known as "Type II" supernovae, are the most common type of stellar explosion realized in nature. They are defined by the presence of prominent hydrogen lines in their spectra. Type II supernovae are…
The gravitational core collapse of a star produces a huge burst of neutrinos of all flavors. A number of detectors worldwide are sensitive to such a burst; its detection would yield information about both particle physics and astrophysics.…
There is now substantial evidence that the progenitors of some core-collapse supernovae undergo enhanced or extreme mass loss prior to explosion. The imprint of this mass loss is observed in the spectra and dynamics of the expanding…
We argue that Color Superconductivity (CSC, Cooper pairing in quark matter leading to the breaking of SU(3) color symmetry) may play a role in triggering the explosive endpoint of stellar evolution in massive stars (M > 8 M_{\odot}). We…
Using the new state-of-the-art core-collapse supernova (CCSN) code F{\sc{ornax}}, we have simulated the three-dimensional dynamical evolution of the cores of 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, and 13-M$_{\odot}$ stars from the onset of collapse. Stars from…
Supernovae (SNe) are thought to arise from two different physical processes. The cores of massive, short-lived stars undergo gravitational core collapse and typically eject a few solar masses during their explosion. These are thought to…
Massive stars becoming red supergiants lose a significant amount of their mass during that brief evolutionary phase. They then either explode as a hydrogen-rich supernova (SN Type II), or continue to evolve as a hotter supergiant (before…
Core-collapse explosions of massive stars leave behind neutron stars, with a known diversity that includes the "Central Compact Objects" (CCOs). Typified by the neutron star discovered near the centre of the Cas A supernova remnant (SNR),…
Observations show that at least some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) happen simultaneously with core-collapse supernovae (SNe), thus linking by a common thread nature's two grandest explosions. We review here the growing evidence for and…
Core-collapse supernovae are among the most energetic cosmic cataclysms. They are prodigious emitters of neutrinos and quite likely strong galactic sources of gravitational waves. Observation of both neutrinos and gravitational waves from…
We study stellar binary evolution that leads to the formation of a white dwarf (WD) that explodes in a thermonuclear supernova at the termination of a common envelope evolution (CEE) shortly before the core of its companion explodes as a…
Core-collapse supernovae are dramatic explosions marking the catastrophic end of massive stars. The only means to get direct information about the supernova engine is from observations of neutrinos emitted by the forming neutron star, and…
Supernovae of Type IIn (narrow line) appear to be explosions that had strong mass loss before the event, so that the optical luminosity is powered by the circumstellar interaction. If the mass loss region has an optical depth $>c/v_s$,…
Mapping supernovae to their progenitors is fundamental to understanding the collapse of massive stars. We investigate the red supergiant problem, which concerns why red supergiants with masses $\sim16$-$30 M_\odot$ have not been identified…
During a supernova explosion, a radiation-dominated shock (RDS) travels through its progenitor. A collisionless shock (CS) is usually assumed to replace it during shock breakout (SB). We demonstrate here that for some realistic progenitors…
With red supergiants (RSGs) predicted to end their lives as Type IIP core collapse supernova (CCSN), their behaviour before explosion needs to be fully understood. Mass loss rates govern RSG evolution towards SN and have strong implications…