Making Black Holes in Supernovae

Abstract

The possibility of making stellar mass black holes in supernovae that otherwise produce viable Type II and Ib supernova explosions is discussed and estimates given of their number in the Milky Way Galaxy. Observational diagnostics of stellar mass black hole formation are reviewed. While the equation of state sets the critical mass, fall back during the explosion is an equally important (and uncertain) element in determining if a black hole is formed. SN 1987A may or may not harbor a black hole, but if the critical mass for neutron stars is 1.5 - 1.6 M\sun, as Brown and Bethe suggest, it probably does. Observations alone do not yet resolve the issue. Reasons for this state of ambiguity are discussed and suggestions given as to how gamma-ray and x-ray observations in the future might help.

14 pages, uuencoded gzipped postscript, Accepted Nuclear Physics A, Gerry Brown Festschrift contribution

References in corpus (3)

• Galactic Chemical Evolution: Hydrogen Through Zinc
• The Neutron Star and Black Hole Initial Mass Function
• On the formation of low-mass black holes in massive binary stars

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• Stochastic background of gravitational waves generated by a cosmological population of young, rapidly rotating neutron stars
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• Gravitational Wave Background from a Cosmological Population of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• The fading of SN 1997D
• Early-time Spitzer observations of the type II-Plateau supernova, 2004dj
• Supernova Fallback and the Emergence of a Black Hole
• Stochastic background of gravitational waves
• Will a Black Hole Soon Emerge from SN 1997D ?
• Probing nonlinear electrodynamics in slowly rotating spacetimes through neutrino astrophysics
• Optical Light Curves of Supernovae
• Gravitational wave background from Population III black hole formation
• Protoneutron Stars with Kaon Condensation and their Delayed Collapse
• Optical and Infrared Observations of Radioactive Elements in Supernovae
• Rates of Observable Black Hole Emergence in Supernovae
• Neutron Stars and Black Holes as MACHOs
• Background of gravitational waves from pre-galactic black hole formation