Global comparison of core-collapse supernova simulations in spherical symmetry

Evan O’Connor,Eric J Lentz,Kei Kotake,Tobias Fischer,David Vartanyan,Tomoya Takiwaki,O E Bronson Messer,Anthony Mezzacappa,Sean Couch,Robert Bollig,Adam Burrows,Matthias Liebendörfer,Hans-Thomas Janka

doi:10.1088/1361-6471/aadeae

Abstract

We present a comparison between several simulation codes designed to study the core-collapse supernova mechanism. We pay close attention to controlling the initial conditions and input physics in order to ensure a meaningful and informative comparison. Our goal is three-fold. First, we aim to demonstrate the current level of agreement between various groups studying the core-collapse supernova central engine. Second, we desire to form a strong basis for future simulation codes and methods to compare to. Lastly, we want this work to be a stepping stone for future work exploring more complex simulations of core-collapse supernovae, i.e., simulations in multiple dimensions and simulations with modern neutrino and nuclear physics. We compare the early (first ∼500 ms after core bounce) spherically-symmetric evolution of a 20 M⊙ progenitor star from six different core-collapse supernovae codes: 3DnSNe-IDSA, AGILE-BOLTZTRAN, FLASH, Fornax, GR1D, and PROMETHEUS-VERTEX. Given the diversity of neutrino transport and hydrodynamic methods employed, we find excellent agreement in many critical quantities, including the shock radius evolution and the amount of neutrino heating. Our results provide an excellent starting point from which to extend this comparison to higher dimensions and compare the development of hydrodynamic instabilities that are crucial to the supernova explosion mechanism, such as turbulence and convection.

Highlights

Simulations of core-collapse supernovae have a long history, starting in the 1960s with the seminal work of [1,2,3]
Throughout all plots we use the following line style scheme, results from 3DnSNe-isotropic diffusion source approximation (IDSA) are shown in green, AGILEBOLTZTRAN results are shown in black, FLASH results are shown in red, Fornax results are in blue, GR1D results are in gray, and PROMETHEUS-VERTEX results are shown in orange
With this effort we have taken the first steps toward this goal with the first extensive code-to-code comparison in over 10 years, between six core-collapse supernova codes: 3DnSNe-IDSA, AGILE-BOLTZTRAN, FLASH, FORNAX, GR1D, and PROMETHEUS-VERTEX

Summary

Introduction

Simulations of core-collapse supernovae have a long history, starting in the 1960s with the seminal work of [1,2,3]. Today’s simulations of core-collapse supernova are incredibly complex. Stellar evolution, each of which remain uncertain to varying degrees, into multidimensional, general-relativistic, multi-species and multi-energy neutrino-radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Given the large multi-physics nature of these simulations, the large parameter space of initial conditions, and the varying abilities of individual simulation codes, comparisons between independent investigations have historically been difficult

Objectives

Results

Conclusion