Princeton University Thunch Talk

The mechanism powering core-collapse supernovae remains uncertain. I will discuss aspects of the critical condition for explosion, focusing on the model problem of spherical accretion onto a standing accretion shock. My recent work explores the importance of turbulence in setting the explosion condition and in explaining the qualitatively different outcomes between one-dimensional and multi-dimensional models. I will then transition to a discussion of the first few seconds after explosion, during the "proto-neutron star" cooling epoch, when a neutrino-driven wind emerges from the cooling neutron star into the overlying massive stellar progenitor. I will present results from new two-dimensional and three-dimensional MHD calculations of magnetocentrifugal thermal winds and connect them to the birth of highly magnetic, rapidly rotating neutron stars ("proto-magnetars"), which have been invoked in models of gamma-ray bursts and super-luminous supernovae. I will mention some additional potential applications of these results to winds from normal stars and irradiated Hot Jupiters.