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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Core-collapse supernovae are violent explosions at the end of massive stars lifetimes. Due to energy loses when fusion up to iron group nuclei occurs in the core of a massive star, the star cannot maintain hydrostatic equilibrium -- resulting in a relativistic collapse until nuclear densities in the core are reached. At these densities nuclear forces and neutron degeneracy pressure halt the collapse and a protoneutron star (PNS) is formed. The still infalling stellar material above the PNS is then rebounded, hydrodynamic energy loses stall the rebounded shockwave, and the shockwave is revived by energy deposition between the PNS and the stalled shockwave. Modeling the details of the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism remains an active area of research (the current standard paradigm invokes the "convection enhanced" engine proposed by LANL scientists in the 1990s), but the nucleosynthetic yields can give insight to the nature of these explosions. This work examines the sensitivity of the nucleosynthetic yields to the mass of the progenitor and the prescription of the rate and total explosion energy injection. Using the Nucleosynthesis Grid (NuGrid) nuclear network, the chemical evolution of 15, 20, and 25 solar mass progenitors with different explosion yields, on the order of 1 foe (10^51 ergs), and energy deposition rates in the shockwave revival are examined in 1-D to compare to observational data to put constraints on the supernova explosion mechanism.