Related papers: Massive stars as thermonuclear reactors and their …
Blue-supergiant stars develop into core-collapse supernovae --- one of the most energetic outbursts in the universe --- when all nuclear burning fuel is exhausted in the stellar core. Previous attempts failed to explain observed explosions…
Nucleosynthesis, on the surface of accreting neutron stars, produces a range of chemical elements. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of crystallization to see how this complex composition forms new neutron star crust. We find…
Repulsive interactions between neutrons in compact stellar cores cause luminosity and a steady outflow of hydrogen from stellar surfaces. Neutron repulsion in more massive compact objects made by gravitational collapse produces violent,…
The hydrogen and helium accreted by X-ray bursting neutron stars is periodically consumed in runaway thermonuclear reactions that cause the entire surface to glow brightly in X-rays for a few seconds. With models of the emission, the mass…
Current understanding of core collapse and thermonuclear supernovae is reviewed. Recent progress in unveiling the nature of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRB) is discussed, with the focus on the apparent link of several GRBs with an energetic…
We point out similarity of thermodynamic conditions reached in intermediate energy nuclear collisions and in supernova explosions. We show that a statistical approach, which has been previously applied for nuclear multifragmentation…
The assembly of supermassive black holes poses a challenge primarily because of observed quasars at high redshift, but additionally because of the current lack of observations of intermediate mass black holes. One plausible scenario for…
We review the nuclear physics input necessary for the study of the collapse of massive stars as precursor to supernova explosions. Recent theoretical advances for the calculation of the relevant weak-interaction processes and their…
For millennia, mankind has been fascinated by the marvel of the starry night sky. Yet, a proper scientific understanding of how stars form, shine, and die is a relatively recent achievement, made possible by the interplay of different…
We review the characteristics of nucleosynthesis in 'Hypernovae', i.e., core-collapse supernovae with very large explosion energies ($ \gsim 10^{52} $ ergs). The hypernova yields show the following characteristics: 1) The mass ratio between…
Motivated by their role as the direct or indirect source of many of the elements in the Universe, numerical modeling of core collapse supernovae began more than five decades ago. Progress toward ascertaining the explosion mechanism(s) has…
We have performed the first calculations to follow the evolution of all stable nuclei and their radioactive progenitors in a finely-zoned stellar model computed from the onset of central hydrogen burning through explosion as a Type II…
We study nucleosynthesis in 'hypernovae', i.e., supernovae with very large explosion energies ($ \gsim 10^{52} $ ergs) for both spherical and aspherical explosions. The hypernova yields compared to those of ordinary core-collapse supernovae…
Nuclear reactions drive the stellar evolution and contribute to the stellar and galactic chemicals abundances. New determinations of the nuclear reaction rates for key fusion reactions of stellar evolution are now available, paving the way…
One of the most dramatic possible consequences of stellar rotation is its influence on stellar death, particularly of massive stars. If the angular momentum of the iron core when it collapses is such as to produce a neutron star with a…
Neutrinos play a key role in core-collapse supernova explosions. Carrying information from deep inside the stellar core, neutrinos are direct probes of the supernova mechanism. Intriguing recent developments on the role of neutrinos in…
The explosion mechanism of core-collapse supernovae is a long-standing problem in stellar astrophysics. We briefly outline the main contenders for a solution and review recent efforts to model core-collapse supernova explosions by means of…
The alpha-rich freezeout from equilibrium occurs during the core-collapse explosion of a massive star when the supernova shock wave passes through the Si-rich shell of the star. The nuclei are heated to high temperature and broken down into…
Advances in our understanding and the modeling of stellar core-collapse and supernova explosions over the past 15 years are reviewed, concentrating on the evolution of hydrodynamical simulations, the description of weak interactions and…
In dense stars such as collapsing cores of supernovae and neutron stars, nuclear "pasta" such as rod-like and slab-like nuclei are speculated to exist. However, whether or not they are actually formed in supernova cores is still unclear.…