Related papers: Supernova Triggers for End-Devonian Extinctions
Every supernova hitherto observed has been considered to be the terminal explosion of a star. Moreover, all supernovae with absorption lines in their spectra show those lines decreasing in velocity over time, as the ejecta expand and thin,…
Type 1a supernova magnitudes conventionally include an additive parameter called the extinction coefficient. We find that the extinction coefficients of a popular ``gold'' set are well correlated with the deviation of magnitudes from Hubble…
All recent numerical simulations agree that stars in the main sequence mass range of 9-40 solar masses do not produce a prompt hydrodynamic ejection of the outer layers after core collapse and bounce. Rather they suggest that stellar core…
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…
Axion emission by hot and dense plasmas is a new energy-loss channel for stars. Observational consequences include a modification of the solar sound-speed profile, an increase of the solar neutrino flux, a reduction of the helium-burning…
We investigate the supernova explosions that end the lives of massive Population III stars in low-mass minihalos (M~10^6 M_sun) at redshifts z~20. Employing the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method, we carry out numerical simulations in a…
The rapidly growing base of observational data for supernova explosions of massive stars demands theoretical explanations. Central of these is a self-consistent model for the physical mechanism that provides the energy to start and drive…
The origin of super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe), especially the source of their huge luminosities, has not been clarified yet. While a strong interaction between SN ejecta and dense circumstellar media (CSM) is a leading scenario,…
We report here on recent progress in understanding the birth conditions of neutron stars and the way how supernovae explode. More sophisticated numerical models have led to the discovery of new phenomena in the supernova core, for example a…
Supernovae explosions of massive stars are nowadays believed to result from a two-step process, with an initial gravitational core collapse followed by an expansion of matter after a bouncing on the core. This scenario meets several…
It is usually believed that Darwin's theory leads to a smooth gradual evolution, so that mass extinctions must be caused by external shocks. However, it has recently been argued that mass extinctions arise from the intrinsic dynamics of…
I suggest that in rare cases type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) evaporate Jupiter-like planets that reside within a=50Ro from the SN, accounting for the presence of ~0.001Mo of hydrogen in the ejecta. It is not easy to form such planets. The…
The Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) have been found to be associated with significant amounts of dust. These core-collapse events are generally expected to be the final stage in the evolution of highly-massive stars, either while in an…
The problem of extinction is the most important issue to be dealt with in the process of obtaining true absolute magnitudes of core-collapse (including stripped-envelope) supernovae (SNe). The plane-parallel model, widely used in the past,…
We investigated the potential biological impacts at Earth's surface of stratospheric O3 depletion caused by nearby supernovae known to have occurred about 2.5 and 8 million years ago at about 50 pc distance. New and previously published…
The core of a massive star (M > 8 Msun) eventually collapses. This implosion usually triggers a supernova (SN) explosion that ejects most of the stellar envelope and leaves behind a neutron star (NS) with a mass of up to about 2 Msun.…
Type Ia supernovae, the thermonuclear explosions of white dwarf stars composed of carbon and oxygen, were instrumental as distance indicators in establishing the acceleration of the universe's expansion. However, the physics of the…
If the Sun was born in a relatively compact open cluster, it is quite likely that a massive (10MSun) star was nearby when it exploded in a supernova. The repercussions of a supernova can be rather profound, and the current Solar System may…
We demonstrate that $\sim10\,\textrm{s}$ after the core-collapse of a massive star, a thermonuclear explosion of the outer shells is possible for some (tuned) initial density and composition profiles, assuming that the neutrinos failed to…
Collisions between stellar remnants and dark matter in the Galactic bulge are frequent, and the kinetic energy of a primordial black hole incident on a white dwarf, if it is all thermalized, will raise the degenerate core's temperature, by…