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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
As the most energetic explosions in the Universe, core-collapse supernovae are the dramatic conclusions of massive stars. These events culminate in the production of the most exotic of nature's objects, neutron stars and black holes, as well as the mundane stuff of existence, nature's elements. The need to understand core-collapse supernovae is obvious, yet despite decades of scrutiny one-dimensional simulations have not yielded explosions. Over the last decade two-dimensional simulations have shown promise. However, none have patently produced satisfactory explosions. Our group has recently identified a new core-collapse supernova mechanism, but in order to test the fidelity of this mechanism much more numerical work will be required. In this talk, I will introduce the new supernova mechanism, and discuss the numerical techniques that we have employed to study it. Finally, I will discuss our planned development of a next-generation multi-D supernova code that, it is planned, will incorporate even more accurate hydrodynamic, gravity, and neutrino transport solvers and will test the various proposed explosion mechanisms.