Multidimensional Simulations of Rotating Pair Instability Supernovae

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We study the effects of rotation on the dynamics, energetics and Ni-56 production of Pair Instability Supernova explosions by performing rotating two-dimensional ("2.5-D") hydrodynamics simulations.

• We calculate the evolution of eight low metallicity (Z = 10^-3, 10^-4 Zsun) massive (135-245 Msun) PISN progenitors with initial surface rotational velocities 50% that of the critical Keplerian value using the stellar evolution code MESA.
• We allow for both the inclusion and the omission of the effects of magnetic fields in the angular momentum transport and in chemical mixing, resulting in slowly-rotating and rapidly-rotating final carbon-oxygen cores, respectively.
• Increased rotation for carbon-oxygen cores of the same mass and chemical stratification leads to less energetic PISN explosions that produce smaller amounts of Ni-56 due to the effect of the angular momentum barrier that develops and slows the dynamical collapse.