The Los Alamos Supernova Light Curve Project: Computational Methods

Abstract

We have entered the era of explosive transient astronomy, in which upcoming real-time surveys like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) will detect supernovae in unprecedented numbers. Future telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope may discover supernovae from the earliest stars in the universe and reveal their masses. The observational signatures of these astrophysical transients are the key to unveiling their central engines, the environments in which they occur, and to what precision they will pinpoint cosmic acceleration and the nature of dark energy. We present a new method for modeling supernova light curves and spectra with the radiation hydrodynamics code RAGE coupled with detailed monochromatic opacities in the SPECTRUM code. We include a suite of tests that demonstrate how the improved physics is indispensable to modeling shock breakout and light curves.

18 pages, 19 figures, published in ApJ Supplements

References in corpus (11)

• The RAGE radiation-hydrodynamic code
• Fallback and Black Hole Production in Massive Stars
• Shell-shocked diffusion model for the light curve of SN2006gy
• Supernova Shock Breakout from a Red Supergiant
• Probing Shock Breakout with Serendipitous GALEX Detections of Two SNLS Type II-P Supernovae
• Numerical models of collisions between core-collapse supernovae and circumstellar shells
• Seeing the First Supernovae at the Edge of the Universe with JWST
• Supernova Fallback: A Possible Site for the r-Process
• Neutrinos from Fallback onto Newly Formed Neutron Stars
• The Unusual Temporal and Spectral Evolution of the Type IIn Supernova 2011ht
• Infrared Echoes Reveal the Shock Breakout of the Cas A Supernova

Cited by in corpus (32)

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• Finding the First Cosmic Explosions I: Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Tomography of Massive Stars from Core Collapse to Supernova Shock Breakout
• Bolometric and UV Light Curves of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Finding the First Cosmic Explosions II: Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Finding the First Cosmic Explosions. III. Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Supermassive Population III Supernovae and the Birth of the First Quasars
• The Supernova that Destroyed a Protogalaxy: Prompt Chemical Enrichment and Supermassive Black Hole Growth
• Detectability of the First Cosmic Explosions
• Probing the stellar initial mass function with high-$z$ supernovae
• The Biggest Explosions in the Universe
• Actinide opacities for modeling the spectra and light curves of kilonovae
• Illuminating the Primeval Universe with Type IIn Supernovae
• The Biggest Explosions in the Universe. II
• Emission from Pair-Instability Supernovae with Rotation
• The First Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Universe
• Pair-Instability Supernovae in the Local Universe
• Light Curves from Supernova Shock Breakout through an Extended Wind
• Can Stellar Mixing Explain the Lack of Type Ib Supernovae in Long-Duration GRBs?
• Population III Hypernovae
• Finding the First Cosmic Explosions. IV. 90 - 140 M${}_{\odot }$ Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Detecting Pair-Instability Supernovae at z<5 with the James Webb Space Telescope
• Detecting strongly lensed supernovae at z ~ 5-7 with LSST
• The Role of Inhomogeneities in Supernova Shock Breakout Emission
• The Effects on Supernova Shock Breakout and Swift Light Curves Due to the Mass of the Hydrogen-Rich Envelope
• Model Atmospheres for X-ray Bursting Neutron Stars
• Light Curves and Spectra from a Unimodal Core-Collapse SuperNova
• Gray Radiation Hydrodynamics with the FLASH Code for Astrophysical Applications
• The Supernovae Analysis Application (SNAP)
• Benford's law in atomic spectra and opacity databases