Computational Models of Stellar Collapse and Core-Collapse Supernovae

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae are among Nature's most energetic events. They mark the end of massive star evolution and pollute the interstellar medium with the life-enabling ashes of thermonuclear burning. Despite their importance for the evolution of galaxies and life in the universe, the details of the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism remain in the dark and pose a daunting computational challenge. We outline the multi-dimensional, multi-scale, and multi-physics nature of the core-collapse supernova problem and discuss computational strategies and requirements for its solution. Specifically, we highlight the axisymmetric (2D) radiation-MHD code VULCAN/2D and present results obtained from the first full-2D angle-dependent neutrino radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the post-core-bounce supernova evolution. We then go on to discuss the new code Zelmani which is based on the open-source HPC Cactus framework and provides a scalable AMR approach for 3D fully general-relativistic modeling of stellar collapse, core-collapse supernovae and black hole formation on current and future massively-parallel HPC systems. We show Zelmani's scaling properties to more than 16,000 compute cores and discuss first 3D general-relativistic core-collapse results.

16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the DOE/SciDAC 2009 conference. A version with high-resolution figures is available from http://stellarcollapse.org/papers/Ott_SciDAC2009.pdf

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Neutrino Quantum Kinetics
• Neutrino Transfer in Three Dimensions for Core-Collapse Supernovae. I. Static Configurations
• The Role of Collective Neutrino Flavor Oscillations in Core-Collapse Supernova Shock Revival
• Gravitational Wave Extraction in Simulations of Rotating Stellar Core Collapse
• THESEUS: a key space mission concept for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
• Exploding Core-Collapse Supernovae with Jittering Jets
• Applying the Jet Feedback Mechanism to Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions
• Multi-Angle Simulation of Flavor Evolution in the Neutrino Neutronization Burst From an O-Ne-Mg Core-Collapse Supernova
• Quantifying uncertainties in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic codes
• thornado-hydro: a discontinuous Galerkin method for supernova hydrodynamics with nuclear equations of state
• A Discontinuous Galerkin Method for General Relativistic Hydrodynamics in thornado