Related papers: Supernova Explosions: Lessons from Spectropolarime…
We have made polarimetric observations of three Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) and two type II supernovae (SN II). No significant polarization was detected for any of the SN Ia down to the level of 0.2\%, while polarization of order $1.0\%$ was…
Nonspherical mass motions are a generic feature of core-collapse supernovae, and hydrodynamic instabilities play a crucial role for the explosion mechanism. First successful neutrino-driven explosions could be obtained with self-consistent,…
Type Ia supernovae result when carbon-oxygen white dwarfs in binary systems accrete mass from companion stars, reach a critical mass, and explode. The near uniformity of their light curves makes these supernovae good standard candles for…
We explore the dependence on spatial dimension of the viability of the neutrino heating mechanism of core-collapse supernova explosions. We find that the tendency to explode is a monotonically increasing function of dimension, with 3D…
We consider the polarization arising from scattering in an envelope illuminated by a central anisotropic source. Spherical harmonics are used to describe both the light source anisotropy and the envelope density distribution functions of…
The measurement of non-zero polarization can be used to infer the presence of departures from spherical symmetry in supernovae (SNe). The origin of the majority of the intrinsic polarization observed in SNe is in electron scattering, which…
Recent observations of supernovae, supernova remnants, and radio pulsars suggest that there are correlations between pulsar kicks and spins, infrared and gamma-ray line profiles, supernova polarizations, and ejecta debris fields. A…
We present modelling of line polarization to study multi-dimensional geometry of stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae (SNe). We demonstrate that a purely axisymmetric, two-dimensional geometry cannot reproduce a loop in the Stokes Q-U…
Core collapse supernovae are dominated by weakly interacting neutrinos. This provides a unique opportunity for macroscopic parity violation. We speculate that parity violation in a strong magnetic field can lead to an asymmetry in the…
All core collapse supernovae are strongly aspherical. The "Bochum event," with velocity components displaced symmetrically about the principal H$\alpha$ line, strongly suggests that SN 1987A was a bi-polar rather than a uni-polar explosion.…
We present multi-epoch spectropolarimetry and spectra for a sample of 14 Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn). We find that after correcting for likely interstellar polarization, SNe IIn commonly show intrinsic continuum polarization of 1--3% at…
Massive stars die an explosive death as a core-collapse supernova (CCSN). The exact physical processes that cause the collapsing star to rebound into an explosion are not well-understood, and the key in resolving this issue may lie in the…
While the members of the Type IIn category of supernovae are united by the presence of strong multicomponent Balmer emission lines in their spectra, they are quite heterogeneous with respect to other properties such as Balmer line profiles,…
This is the text of an introduction to a workshop on asymmetric explosions held in Austin in June, 2003. The great progress in supernova research over thirty-odd years is briefly reviewed. The context in which the meeting was called is then…
The technique of polarized neutron scattering is reviewed with emphasis on applications. Many examples of the usefulness of the method in various fields of physics are given like the determination of spin density maps, measurement of…
Polarization is a basic property of light and is fundamentally linked to the internal geometry of a source of radiation. Polarimetry complements photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging analyses of sources of radiation and has made possible…
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…
We present single-epoch, post-maximum spectropolarimetry of four Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) that span a range of spectral and photometric properties: SN 2002bf and SN 2004dt exhibit unusually high-velocity (HV) absorption lines. SN 1997dt…
We here focus on the behavior of supernovae that technically explode in 1D (spherical symmetry). When simulated in 3D, however, the outcomes of representative progenitors of this class are quite different in almost all relevant quantities.…
The origin of the luminosity of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) is an unresolved mystery, and a number of very different physical scenarios (including energy injection from magnetars, collision with a dense circumstellar medium and pair…