[Astronomy seminar] Astronomy Seminar on Friday 22nd of September

[Astronomy seminar announcements]

Title: Neutrino-Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations of Core-Collapse 
Supernovae
Speaker: Evan Patrick O'Connor (SU)

Friday 22nd of September from 10:30 to 11:30 at FC61.

Abstract:
The end game of massive star stellar evolution is a core-collapse 
supernova. It is triggered when the iron core
in a massive star (M>8-10Msun) can no longer counterbalance the force of 
gravity and collapses. The collapse
continues to nuclear densities at which point the residual strong force 
can supply enough pressure to halt collapse.
The inertia of the collapsing core is elastically transfer to outgoing 
kinetic energy (the core bounces) and a shockwave is launched.
The core-collapse problem is that this shockwave stalls soon after 
bounce and becomes an accretion shock.
The goal of supernova theory is to understand how this shock is 
reenergized and how it gives rise to the properties of observed supernovae.
Crucial to this revival is the so-called neutrino mechanism where the 
intense luminosity of neutrinos emitted from the newly formed
neutron star is able to heat the newly shocked material and drive an 
explosion. Modeling core-collapse supernovae numerically
involves bringing together all four fundamental forces in a complex 
multi-physics environment. In this seminar, I will give an
overview of the physics of core-collapse supernovae, present our recent 
efforts on modelling core-collapse supernovae
in 1, 2, and 3 spatial dimensions and highlight the path forward in the 
coming years.