Related papers: Supernova explosions, 511 keV photons, gamma ray b…
I argue that cosmic Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB) may be produced by collapses or mergers of stars made of `mirror' matter. The mirror neutrinos (which are sterile for our matter) produced at these events can oscillate into ordinary neutrinos. The…
Mirror matter models have been suggested recently as an explanation of neutrino puzzles and microlensing anomalies. We show that mirror supernovae can be a copious source of energetic gamma rays if one assumes that the quantum gravity scale…
Core-collapse supernova explosions play a wide role in astrophysics by producing compact remnants (neutron stars, black holes) and the synthesis and injection of many heavy elements into their host Galaxy. Because they are produced in some…
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…
We propose that the gravitational collapse of supermassive objects ($ M\ga 10^4 M_\odot$), either as relativistic star clusters or as single supermassive stars (which may result from stellar mergers in dense star clusters), could be a…
Massive stars (M> 10Msun) end their lives with spectacular explosions due to gravitational collapse. The collapse turns the stars into compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes with the ejection of cosmic rays and heavy…
There are many interesting topics at the intersection of physics and astrophysics we call Supernova Theory. A small subset of them include the origin of pulsar kicks, gravitational radiation signatures of core bounce, and the possible roles…
One of the central problems in supernova theory is the question how massive stars explode. Understanding the physical processes that drive the explosion is crucial for linking the stellar progenitors to the final remnants and for predicting…
Fresh insights and powerful numerical tools are revitalizing the theoretical exploration of the supernova mechanism. The realization that the protoneutron star is Rayleigh-Taylor unstable at various times and radii and, hence, that a…
I outline a unified model of high-energy astrophysics, in which the gamma background radiation, cluster "cooling flows", gamma-ray bursts, X-ray flashes and cosmic-ray electrons and nuclei of all energies -share a common origin. The…
How do massive stars explode? Progress toward the answer is driven by increases in compute power. Petascale supercomputers are enabling detailed three-dimensional simulations of core-collapse supernovae. These are elucidating the role of…
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 quest for the supernova explosion mechanism has been one of the outstanding challenges in computational astrophysics for several decades. Simulations have now progressed to a stage at which the solution appears close and neutrino and…
Astrophysical explosions result from the release of magnetic, gravitational, or thermonuclear energy on dynamical timescales, typically the sound-crossing time for the system. These explosions include solar and stellar flares, eruptive…
Supernova can be polarized by an asymmetry in the explosion process, an off-center source of illumination, scattering in an envelope distorted by rotation or a binary companion, or scattering by the circumstellar dust. Careful polarimetry…
We propose that the cosmological gamma ray bursts arise from the collapse of neutron stars to black holes triggered by collisions or mergers with main sequence stars. This scenario represents a cosmological history qualitatively different…
Most supernova explosions accompany the death of a massive star. These explosions give birth to neutron stars and black holes and eject solar masses of heavy elements. However, determining the mechanism of explosion has been a half-century…
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…
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…
The formation of supermassive black holes through the gravitational collapse of supermassive objects ($M \ga 10^4 M_\odot$) has been proposed as a source of cosmological gamma-ray bursts. The major advantage of this model is that such…