Carla Fröhlich

NC State University, December 5, 12:30 pm

Turbulence in Core-Collapse Supernovae - the details matter

Core-collapse supernovae are the explosive death of massive stars. Despite more than half a century of research, the details of the explosion mechanism and shock revival are still elusive. It is generally understood that energy deposition behind the shock by neutrinos can revive the stalled shock and lead to a successful explosion. Additionally, it has been proposed that effects such as perturbations in the pre-collapse stellar structure and/or fluid turbulence behind the shock aid in stiffening the effective equation of state of the fluid, and hence aid the shock revival. In this talk, I will discuss why measuring turbulence in supernovae is difficult, and how different definitions of turbulence change one’s conclusions about the importance of turbulence in the supernova.