| Speaker: | Luc Dessart (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Core-collapse supernovae: Cosmological probes and astrophysical laboratories for stellar evolution and explosion |
| Date (JST): | Wed, Feb 09, 2011, 15:30 - 17:00 |
| Place: | Lecture Hall |
| Abstract: |
Despite their relative scarcity, massive stars are prime objects in modern astrophysics. During their life, they influence the interstellar medium through their high luminosity and strong winds. Their cataclysmic death following the gravitational collapse of their degenerate core produces a supernova (SN) visible to large distances in the Universe, as well as the formation of a compact remnant, a neutron star or a black hole. In this talk, I will present a broad overview of core-collapse SNe (CCSNe), going through the key features characterizing the pre-SN evolution, their star death, the explosion mechanism, and the resulting SN ejecta. I will then turn to SN radiation, and show how radiative-transfer modeling of such CCSN observables can be used 1) to determine distances in the Universe and thus make CCSNe reliable cosmological probes; 2) to constrain the properties of the progenitor star and thus massive-star evolution; and 3) to constrain the properties of the explosion itself. |
