Abstract
In this paper, we present a careful study on the impact of neutrino pair-production on core-collapse supernovae via spherically-symmetric, general-relativistic simulations of two different massive star progenitors with energy-dependent neutrino transport. We explore the impact and consequences of both the underlying microphysics and the implementation in the radiation transport algorithms on the supernova evolution, neutrino signal properties, and the explosion dynamics. We consider the two dominant neutrino pair-production processes found in supernovae, electron-positron annihilation as well as nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung in combination with both a simplified and a complete treatment of the processes in the radiation transport algorithms. We find that the use of the simplified prescription quantitatively impacts the neutrino signal at the 10\% level and potentially the supernova dynamics, as we show for the case of a 9.6M$_\odot$ progenitor. We also show that the choice of nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung interaction can also have a quantitative impact on the neutrino signal. A self-consistent treatment with state-of-the-art microphysics is suggested for precision simulations of core collapse, however the simplified treatment explored here is both computationally less demanding and results in a qualitatively similar evolution.
Highlights
Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) represent the last stage of massive star evolution for stars more massive than 8M⊙ and, along with neutron star-neutron star mergers and Type-Ia supernovae, are one of the main channels of galactic nucleosynthesis [1,2]
Do CCSNe contribute to the production of heavy elements but they are the main birth site of neutron stars and stellar mass black holes
The most readily available observable is the electromagnetic signal, for example, the Zwicky Transient Facility observed over 800 CCSNe in 2018 [3]
Summary
Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) represent the last stage of massive star evolution for stars more massive than 8M⊙ and, along with neutron star-neutron star mergers and Type-Ia supernovae, are one of the main channels of galactic nucleosynthesis [1,2]. Supernovae are true multimessenger events, producing neutrinos, gravitational waves, as well as photons. In the fortunate case of a galactic supernova, the two other channels, gravitational waves and neutrinos, become possible [4,5]. At the onset of the explosion, the outside layers of the progenitor star shroud the core and prevent photons from carrying direct information from the core. Neutrinos and gravitational waves are the only direct channels helping us deciphering the physics of the early explosion.
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