Event

The death of massive stars in core collapse supernova explosions are directly or indirectly responsible for the lion’s share of the elements in the periodic table, give birth to neutron stars and stellar mass black holes, and play a major role in the chemical and thermal evolution of their host galaxies. They are a quintessential modern physics application in which kinetic theory, weak- and strong-interaction physics, and relativity come together, microscopic and macroscopic physics joined hand-in-hand in surprising ways. As a phase-space problem high in dimensionality and rich in physics, the “supernova problem” presents a computing challenge that will ride the development of supercomputer architectures for the next decade and beyond. But the challenge is being met. Three-dimensional supernova models exist today. The progress from spherically symmetric, to axisymmetric, to three-dimensional models has been exponential given the rapidly growing foundation of past work and the increasing computational capabilities afforded to modelers. And progress in core collapse supernova theory is being met with great strides in observational capabilities, especially with an eye toward detecting core collapse supernova neutrinos and gravitational waves, the only messengers that will come to us from deep within the supernova central engine. These in turn will provide detailed information we can use to test our models. We will discuss the fundamental physics of core collapse supernova explosions, the modeling challenges it presents, the state of three-dimensional modeling today, the need to continue the development of these models, and the prospect of neutrino and gravitational wave detection from a Galactic core collapse supernova and what we might learn from such an event.

Host: Christopher Mauger