Effect of initial thermal structure on the collapse and explosion of iron stellar cores
Abstract
The adiabatic collapse of 1.7 and 1.5 solar mass iron cores is investigated using the LLPR equation of state and Fermi gas electron capture rates, and assuming complete neutrino trapping. For a variety of initial configurations, infall deleptonization leaves a homologous core of only 1 solar mass; the large overlay mass that the shock must penetrate and dissociate then prevents significant ejection of mass and kinetic energy. If all electron capture is artificially suppressed, ejection is obtained of 0.1 solar mass, with 5 x 10 to the 50th and 2 x 10 to the 52nd ergs kinetic energy for the 1.7 and 1.5 solar mass initial cores, respectively. In stars of these masses, neutrino processes are not responsible for supernova explosion but instead kill the otherwise efficient thermal stiffening mechanism. The initial iron core configuration needed for a supernova explosion must be cooler, and therefore lighter and more isentropic, than those cores heretofore considered. Such a cooler presupernova configuration can evolve if hydrostatic electron capture leads to greater neutrino cooling before the contraction becomes dynamic.
Related Papers
- → The first two-dimensional stellar structure and evolution models of rotating stars(2023)22 cited
- → Homologous collapse and deleptonization of an evolved stellar core(1982)16 cited
- Physical processes in stellar interiors(2013)
- → Stellar Structure and Evolution(2025)5 cited
- → The first two-dimensional stellar structure and evolution models of rotating stars(2023)