APEC Seminar (Astronomy - Particle Physics - Experimental Physics - Cosmology)

Speaker: Manos Chatzopoulos (Louisiana State U)
Title: Pre-supernova Convection in Massive Stars
Date (JST): Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 12:00 - 13:00
Place: Seminar Room A
Abstract: The interior of a massive star in the final years prior to core-collapse supernova is in a state of violent unrest. Vigorous convective shell burning of silicon, oxygen and carbon drives large scale plume motions that can interact with each other and significantly alter the structure of the progenitor star. Under such conditions the star departs from perfect hydrostatic equilibrium and spherical symmetry and may experience dynamical pulses that, in some cases, can lead to episodic mass-loss.

I will present preliminary results from multidimensional simulations of convection in massive stars in the few seconds to hours preceding the supernova explosion. The proper, dynamical multidimensional treatment of convection will be bench-marked against parametrized one-dimensional mixing length theory predictions and the implications for realistic core-collapse supernova progenitor models will be discussed. I will also present a new method to characterize pre-supernova convection, the method of Vector Spherical Harmonics decomposition, and discuss how it can be used to make realizations of core-collapse models in future simulations.