Abstract
Multi-dimensional fluid flow plays a paramount role in the explosions of massive stars as core-collapse supernovae. In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) simulations of these phenomena have matured significantly. Considerable progress has been made towards identifying the ingredients for shock revival by the neutrino-driven mechanism, and successful explosions have already been obtained in a number of self-consistent 3D models. These advances also bring new challenges, however. Prompted by a need for increased physical realism and meaningful model validation, supernova theory is now moving towards a more integrated view that connects multi-dimensional phenomena in the late convective burning stages prior to collapse, the explosion engine, and mixing instabilities in the supernova envelope. Here we review our current understanding of multi-D fluid flow in core-collapse supernovae and their progenitors. We start by outlining specific challenges faced by hydrodynamic simulations of core-collapse supernovae and of the late convective burning stages. We then discuss recent advances and open questions in theory and simulations.
Highlights
The death of massive stars is invariably spectacular
We review recent simulation results and progress in the theoretical understanding of convection during the late burning stages (Sect. 3), of supernova shock revival (Sect. 4), and the hydrodynamics of the explosion phase (Sect. 5)
The majority of relativistic simulations still resort to the HLLE solver (Einfeldt 1988) because of the added complexity of full-wave approximate Riemann solvers for general relativistic (GR) hydrodynamics; exceptions include the COCONUT code which routinely uses the relativistic HLLC solver of Mignone and Bodo (2005), the COCONUT simulations of Cerda-Duran et al (2005) using the Marquina solver (Donat and Marquina 1996), and the convection simulations with the WHISKEYTHC code (Radice et al 2016), which uses a Roe-based flux-split scheme
Summary
In the cores of these stars, nuclear fusion proceeds all the way to the iron group through a sequence of burning stages. Once the core approaches its effective Chandrasekhar mass and becomes sufficiently compact, electron captures on heavy nuclei and partial nuclear disintegration lead to collapse on a free-fall time scale, leaving behind a neutron star or black hole. A small fraction of the potential energy liberated during collapse is transferred to the stellar envelope, which is expelled in a powerful explosion known as a corecollapse supernova, as first recognized by Baade and Zwicky (1934). It is preferable to commence our brief exposition of multi-D hydrodynamic effects with the supernova explosion mechanism rather than to follow the sequence of events in nature, or historical chronology
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