A numerical challenge on the core-collapse supernovae: physics of neutrino and matter at extreme conditions

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae are the explosive phenomena, which occur at the end of the life of massive stars. Despite the importance of these astrophysical events, the mechanism of supernova explosion has been a mystery even after the extensive studies for decades. The unsolved problem involves nuclear and neutrino physics at extreme conditions as well as the hydrodynamical aspects in astrophysics. The physics in femto-meter scale may change drastically the gigantic outcome of the core bounce after the gravitational collapse of the massive stars. In this contribution, I overview recent topics on the numerical challenges to clarify the supernova phenomena.Recent advance of nuclear physics for unstable nuclei and exotic hadrons helps us to provide the nuclear data inside the supernova core. The influence of the dense matter on the explosion and supernova neutrinos has been clarified using the newly constructed data tables based on the theoretical and experimental developments. Recent studies demonstrated that the short neutrino bursts from the black hole formation in more massive stars can be a probe of exotic matter including hyperons and quarks by observations at the neutrino detector facilities. Despite the progress in nuclear and neutrino physics, no explosion is found in the numerical simulations under the spherical symmetry and hence novel effects in multi-dimensions are argued to be essential for the explosion mechanism. Toward the final goal to clarify the supernova mechanism, it is necessary to combine the best knowledge of nuclear, particle physics and astrophysics with computing science on supercomputing facilities.