• Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

November 21, 2025 3:30 PM - November 21, 2025 4:30 PM
PAIS 1100

Host:

Huiayu Duan

Presenter:

Adam Burrows (Princeton University)

Video Recording

Using more than 30 state-of-the-art 3D core-collapse simulations to unprecedented late times, we have derived correlations between core-collapse supernova observables and progenitor core structures. This is the largest collection of 3D supernova models ever generated and allows one to witness and derive testable patterns that might otherwise be obscured when studying one or a few models in isolation. From this panoramic perspective, we see correlations between explosion energy, neutron star gravitational birth masses, the yields of the chemical elements, and pulsar kicks and theoretically important correlations with the compactness parameter of progenitor structure. We find a correlation between explosion energy and progenitor mantle binding energy, suggesting that such explosions are in part self-regulating. We see systematic correlations between progenitor structures and their gravitational-wave and neutrino signals. We find multiple channels for black hole formation and a spectrum of black hole observables. We also find a testable correlation between explosion energy and measures of explosion asymmetry, such as the ejecta mass dipole, and we see a path forward to explain pulsar and magnetar magnetic fields. However, while I contend the core-collapse supernova problem is now qualitatively solved, there is much yet to do in supernova theory before it can robustly and quantitatively explain the variety of supernova observations.