PREPARING FOR AN EXPLOSION: HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES AND TURBULENCE IN PRESUPERNOVAE
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Both observations and numerical simulations are discordant with predictions of conventional stellar evolution codes for the latest stages of a massive star's life before core collapse. The most dramatic example of this disconnect is in the eruptive mass loss occurring in the decade preceding Type IIn supernovae. We outline the key empirical evidence that indicates severe pre-supernova instability in massive stars, and we suggest that the chief reason that these outbursts are absent in stellar evolution models may lie in the treatment of turbulent convection in these codes. The mixing length theory that is used ignores (1) finite amplitude fluctuations in velocity and temperature and (2) their nonlinear interaction with nuclear burning. Including these fluctuations is likely to give rise to hydrodynamic instabilities in the latest burning sequences, which prompts us to discuss a number of far-reaching implications for the fates of massive stars. In particular, we explore connections to enhanced pre-supernova mass loss, unsteady nuclear burning and consequent eruptions, swelling of the stellar radius that may trigger violent interactions with a companion star, and potential modifications to the core structure that could dramatically alter calculations of the core-collapse explosion mechanism itself. These modifications may also impact detailed nucleosynthesis and measured isotopic anomalies in meteorites, as well as the interpretation of young core-collapse supernova remnants. Understanding these critical instabilities in the final stages of evolution may make possible the development of an early warning system for impending core collapse, if we can identify their asteroseismological or eruptive signatures.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7b52917c5baf7d0542ca71a106e2005956b119b9
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In Astronomy and Astrophysics
Citations in the corpus
- CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVAE FROM 9 TO 120 SOLAR MASSES BASED ON NEUTRINO-POWERED EXPLOSIONS (2015, background): “Any small core disturbance prior to explosion (Shiode & Quataert 2014) or envelope instability (Smith & Arnett 2014) could lead to its ejection in many cases.”
- Observational Constraints on the Progenitors of Core-Collapse Supernovae: The Case for Missing High-Mass Stars (2015, background): “This seems plausible given the PTF discovery rate, the other discoveries of pre-explosion outbursts (Pastorello et al. 2007; Fraser et al. 2013b) and the theoretical ideas of hydrodynamic instabilities discussed in Smith & Arnett (2014).”
- Luminous blue variables are antisocial: their isolation implies that they are kicked mass gainers in binary evolution (2014, background): “Moreover, the concentration of eruptive mass loss associated with the final nuclear burning sequences in the last few years before core collapse (Smith & Arnett 2014; Quataert & Shiode 2012) means that the progenitor need not have been in a dense-wind phase for very long.”
- Pre-supernova outbursts via wave heating in massive stars – I. Red supergiants (2017, background): “In a series of papers (Meakin & Arnett 2006, 2007a,b; Arnett, Meakin & Young 2008; Arnett & Meakin 2011; Smith & Arnett 2014; Cristini et al. 2016), Meakin, Arnett and collaborators have investigated the properties of convection during late-phase (carbon shell burning and beyond) nuclear burning.”
- Measuring the Progenitor Masses and Dense Circumstellar Material of Type II Supernovae (2017, background): “…on how to generate pre-explosion outbursts: Yoon & Cantiello (2010), Arnett & Meakin (2011), Quataert & Shiode (2012), Shiode & Quataert (2014), Smith & Arnett (2014), Moriya & Langer (2015), Woosley & Heger (2015), and Quataert et al. (2016), and most recently, one of the most detailed…”
- HIGH-DENSITY CIRCUMSTELLAR INTERACTION IN THE LUMINOUS TYPE IIn SN 2010jl: THE FIRST 1100 DAYS (2013, background): “Smith & Arnett (2014) have recently discussed the consequences of instabilities from turbulent convection in the latest burning phase, which may trigger strong mass loss just before explosion.”
- Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars (2014, background): “The increased instability at very high initial masses is extreme in cases where pre-SN eruptions result from the pulsational pair instability (Woosley et al. 2002, 2007), but eruptions may extend to other nuclear burning instabilities as well (Arnett & Meakin 2011, Smith & Arnett 2014).”
- Unifying Type II Supernova Light Curves with Dense Circumstellar Material (2016, background): “This will assist in identifying its physical origin (see discussions in Smith & Arnett 2014; Woosley & Heger 2015; Quataert et al. 2016, and references therein).”