The Role of Turbulence in Neutrino-Driven Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

Understand

The neutrino-heated "gain layer" immediately behind the stalled shock in a core-collapse supernova is unstable to high-Reynolds-number turbulent convection.

• We carry out and analyze a new set of 19 high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) simulations with a three-species neutrino leakage/heating scheme and compare with spherically-symmetric (1D) and axisymmetric (2D) simulations carried out with the same methods.
• We study the postbounce supernova evolution in a $15$-$M_\odot$ progenitor star and vary the local neutrino heating rate, the magnitude and spatial dependence of asphericity from convective burning in the Si/O shell, and spatial resolution.
• Our simulations suggest that there is a direct correlation between the strength of turbulence in the gain layer and the susceptability to explosion.