Mass Ejection in Failed Supernovae: Variation with Stellar Progenitor

Understand

We study the ejection of mass during stellar core-collapse when the stalled shock does not revive and a black hole forms.

• Neutrino emission during the protoneutron star phase causes a decrease in the gravitational mass of the core, resulting in an outward going sound pulse that steepens into a shock as it travels out through the star.
• We explore the properties of this mass ejection mechanism over a range of stellar progenitors using spherically-symmetric, time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations that treat neutrino mass loss parametrically and follow the shock propagation over the entire star.
• We find that all types of stellar progenitor can eject mass through this mechanism.