Effects of Dimensionality on Pair-Instability Supernova Explosions

Gilmer, Matthew S.; Kozyreva, Alexandra; Hirschi, Raphael; Fröhlich, Carla

Abstract

Since the emergence of the new class of extremely bright transients, super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe), three main mechanisms to power their light curves (LCs) have been discussed. They are the spin-down of a magnetar, interaction with circumstellar material, and the decay of large amounts of radioactive nickel in pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). Given the high degree of diversity seen within the class, it is possible that all three mechanisms are at work. PISN models can be self- consistently simulated from the main sequence phase of very massive stars (VMS) through to their explosion. These models robustly predict large amounts of radioactive nickel and thus very luminous SN events. However, PISN model LCs evolve more slowly than even the slowest evolving SLSNe. Multidimensional effects on the ejecta structure, specifically the mixing of radioactive nickel out to large radii, could alleviate this discrepancy with observation. Here we explore the multidimensional effects on the LC evolution by simulating the explosion phase in 1D, 2D, and 3D. We find that the ejecta from the multidimensional simulations have slightly shallower abundance gradients due to mixing at shell boundaries. We compute synthetic LCs whose shapes show no discernible differences due to the multidimensional effects.

Citation

Gilmer, M. S., Kozyreva, A., Hirschi, R., & Fröhlich, C. (2016, June). Effects of Dimensionality on Pair-Instability Supernova Explosions. Paper presented at Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC2016), Toki Messe, Niigata, Japan

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC2016)
• Conference Location: Toki Messe, Niigata, Japan
• Start Date: Jun 19, 2016
• End Date: Jun 24, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Feb 27, 2017
• Publication Date: Feb 28, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2023
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.7566/jpscp.14.020601
• Publisher URL: https://journals.jps.jp/doi/10.7566/JPSCP.14.020601