We study the multi-dimensional properties of neutrino transfer inside supernova cores by solving the Boltzmann equations for neutrino distribution functions in genuinely six dimensional (6D) phase space. Adopting representative snapshots of the post-
bounce core from other supernova simulations in three dimensions, we solve the temporal evolutions to stationary states of neutrino distribution functions by our Boltzmann solver. Taking advantage of the multi-angle and multi-energy feature realized by the S$_n$ method in our code, we reveal the genuine characteristics of spatially three dimensional (3D) neutrino transfer such as non-radial fluxes and non-diagonal Eddington tensors. In addition, we assess the ray-by-ray approximation, turning off the lateral-transport terms in our code. We demonstrate that the ray-by-ray approximation tends to propagate fluctuations in thermodynamical states around the neutrino-sphere along each radial ray and overestimate the variations between the neutrino distributions on different radial rays. We find that the difference in the densities and fluxes of neutrinos between the ray-by-ray approximation and the full Boltzmann transport becomes ~20%, which is also the case for the local heating rate, whereas the volume-integrated heating rate in the Boltzmann transport is found to be only slightly larger (~2%) than the counterpart in the ray-by-ray approximation due to cancellation among different rays. These results suggest that we had better assess carefully the possible influences of various approximations in the neutrino transfer employed in the current simulations on supernova dynamics. Detailed information on the angle and energy moments of neutrino distribution functions will be profitable for the future development of numerical methods in neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics.
Massive stars (M> 10Msun) end their lives with spectacular explosions due to gravitational collapse. The collapse turns the stars into compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes with the ejection of cosmic rays and heavy elements. Despite
the importance of these astrophysical events, the mechanism of supernova explosions has been an unsolved issue in astrophysics. This is because clarification of the supernova dynamics requires the full knowledge of nuclear and neutrino physics at extreme conditions, and large-scale numerical simulations of neutrino radiation hydrodynamics in multi-dimensions. This article is a brief overview of the understanding (with difficulty) of the supernova mechanism through the recent advance of numerical modeling at supercomputing facilities. Numerical studies with the progress of nuclear physics are applied to follow the evolution of compact objects with neutrino emissions in order to reveal the birth of pulsars/black holes from the massive stars.
We investigate the emergence of strange baryons in the dynamical collapse of a non-rotating massive star to a black hole by the neutrino-radiation hydrodynamical simulations in general relativity. By following the dynamical formation and collapse of
nascent proto-neutron star from the gravitational collapse of a 40Msun star adopting a new hyperonic EOS table, we show that the hyperons do not appear at the core bounce but populate quickly at ~0.5-0.7 s after the bounce to trigger the re-collapse to a black hole. They start to show up off center owing to high temperatures and later prevail at center when the central density becomes high enough. The neutrino emission from the accreting proto-neutron star with the hyperonic EOS stops much earlier than the corresponding case with a nucleonic EOS while the average energies and luminosities are quite similar between them. These features of neutrino signal are a potential probe of the emergence of new degrees of freedom inside the black hole forming collapse.
We study the progenitor dependence of the black hole formation and its associated neutrino signals from the gravitational collapse of non-rotating massive stars, following the preceding study on the single progenitor model in Sumiyoshi et al. (2007).
We aim to clarify whether the dynamical evolution toward the black hole formation occurs in the same manner for different progenitors and to examine whether the characteristic of neutrino bursts is general having the short duration and the rapidly increasing average energies. We perform the numerical simulations by general relativistic neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics to follow the dynamical evolution from the collapse of pre-supernova models of 40Msun and 50Msun toward the black hole formation via contracting proto-neutron stars. For the three progenitor models studied in this paper, we found that the black hole formation occurs in ~0.4-1.5 s after core bounce through the increase of proto-neutron star mass together with the short and energetic neutrino burst. We found that density profile of progenitor is important to determine the accretion rate onto the proto-neutron star and, therefore, the duration of neutrino burst. We compare the neutrino bursts of black hole forming events from different progenitors and discuss whether we can probe clearly the progenitor and/or the dense matter.
We study the black hole formation and the neutrino signal from the gravitational collapse of a non-rotating massive star of 40 Msun. Adopting two different sets of realistic equation of state (EOS) of dense matter, we perform the numerical simulation
s of general relativistic neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics under the spherical symmetry. We make comparisons of the core bounce, the shock propagation, the evolution of nascent proto-neutron star and the resulting re-collapse to black hole to reveal the influence of EOS. We also explore the influence of EOS on the neutrino emission during the evolution toward the black hole formation. We find that the speed of contraction of the nascent proto-neutron star, whose mass increases fast due to the intense accretion, is different depending on the EOS and the resulting profiles of density and temperature differ significantly. The black hole formation occurs at 0.6-1.3 sec after bounce when the proto-neutron star exceeds its maximum mass, which is crucially determined by the EOS. We find that the average energies of neutrinos increase after bounce because of rapid temperature increase, but at different speeds depending on the EOS. The duration of neutrino emission up to the black hole formation is found different according to the different timing of re-collapse. These characteristics of neutrino signatures are distinguishable from those for ordinary proto-neutron stars in successful core-collapse supernovae. We discuss that a future detection of neutrinos from black-hole-forming collapse will contribute to reveal the black hole formation and to constrain the EOS at high density and temperature.
