Related papers: Physics of Superluminous Supernovae
Using the latest generation of adaptive optics imaging systems together with laser guide stars on 8m-class telescopes, we are finally revealing the previously-hidden population of supernovae in starburst galaxies. Finding these supernovae…
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…
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…
Over the last 20 years, supernovae have become a key tool to constrain the expansion history of the Universe through the construction of Hubble diagrams, using luminosity distances to supernovae belonging to the "Ia" subtype. This technique…
Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are catastrophic astrophysical phenomena that occur during the last evolutionary stages of massive stars having initial masses of around 8 M$_{\odot}$ or more. These calamitous events play a pivotal role in…
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…
Massive stars have a profound influence on the Universe, but their formation remains poorly understood. We review the current status of observational and theoretical research in this field, describing the various stages of an evolutionary…
Massive stars have a strong impact on their surroundings, in particular when they produce a core-collapse supernova at the end of their evolution. In these proceedings, we review the general evolution of massive stars and their properties…
Most cosmic ray particles observed derive from the explosions of massive stars, which commonly produce stellar black holes in their supernova explosions. When two such black holes find themselves in a tight binary system they finally merge…
Core-collapse theory brings together many facets of high-energy and nuclear astrophysics and the numerical arts to present theorists with one of the most important, yet frustrating, astronomical questions: "What is the mechanism of…
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…
Theory holds that a star born with an initial mass between about 8 and 140 times the mass of the Sun will end its life through the catastrophic gravitational collapse of its iron core to a neutron star or black hole. This core collapse…
Mass loss bridges the gap between massive stars and supernovae (SNe) in two major ways: (i) theoretically it is the amount of mass lost that determines the mass of the star prior to explosion, and (ii) observations of the circumstellar…
Core-collapse supernovae are one of the most energetic events in the universe ($10^{46} J$). When a massive star (M $>$ 8 M$_{\odot}$) ignites its last fusion stage where silicon fusion makes iron, its end is then very close. Basically, the…
Supernovae are among the most magnificent events in the observable universe. They produce many of the chemical elements necessary for life to exist and their remnants---neutron stars and black holes---are interesting astrophysical objects…
Conversion from neutron stars to strange stars as a possible mechanism of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been discussed in previous works, although the existence of strange stars is still an open question. On the basis of this…
The mechanism of core-collapse supernova explosions must draw on the energy provided by gravitational collapse and transfer the necessary fraction to the kinetic and internal energy of the ejecta. Despite many decades of concerted…
Despite their paucity, massive hot stars are real cosmic engines of fundamental importance in shaping our Universe, from its very early stages up to its current appearance. Understanding the physics of massive stars is then a key issue for…
The extremely luminous supernova SN 2006gy challenges the traditional view that the collapse of a stellar core is the only mechanism by which a massive star makes a supernova, because it seems too luminous by more than a factor of ten. Here…
This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on the observations of supernovae and the theory of their explosion mechanisms. Journal articles and books are cited for the following topics: observations of the spectra,…