Three-Dimensional Simulations of Core-Collapse Supernovae: From Shock Revival to Shock Breakout

Understand

We present 3D simulations of core-collapse supernovae from blast-wave initiation by the neutrino-driven mechanism to shock breakout from the stellar surface, considering two 15 Msun red supergiants (RSG) and two blue supergiants (BSG) of 15 Msun and 20 Msun.

• We demonstrate that the metal-rich ejecta in homologous expansion still carry fingerprints of asymmetries at the beginning of the explosion, but the final metal distribution is massively affected by the detailed progenitor structure.
• The most extended and fastest metal fingers and clumps are correlated with the biggest and fastest-rising plumes of neutrino-heated matter, because these plumes most effectively seed the growth of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities at the C+O/He and He/H composition-shell interfaces after the passage of the SN shock.
• The extent of radial mixing, global asymmetry of the metal-rich ejecta, RT-induced fragmentation of initial plumes to smaller-scale fingers, and maximal Ni and minimal H velocities do not only depend on the initial asphericity and explosion energy (which determine the shock and initial Ni velocities) but also on the density profiles and widths of C+O core and He shell and on the density gradient at the He/H transition, which lead to unsteady shock propagation and the formation of reverse shocks.