Theoretical Support for the Hydrodynamic Mechanism of Pulsar Kicks

Understand

The collapse of a massive star's core, followed by a neutrino-driven, asymmetric supernova explosion, can naturally lead to pulsar recoils and neutron star kicks.

• Here, we present a two-dimensional, radiation-hydrodynamic simulation in which core collapse leads to significant acceleration of a fully-formed, nascent neutron star (NS) via an induced, neutrino-driven explosion.
• During the explosion, a ~10% anisotropy in the low-mass, high-velocity ejecta lead to recoil of the high-mass neutron star.
• At the end of our simulation, the NS has achieved a velocity of ~150 km s$^{-1}$ and is accelerating at ~350 km s$^{-2}$, but has yet to reach the ballistic regime.