Three-dimensional core-collapse supernovae with complex magnetic structures: I. Explosion dynamics

Understand

Magnetic fields can play a major role in the dynamics of outstanding explosions associated to violent events such as GRBs and hypernovae, since they provide a natural mechanism to harness the rotational energy of the central proto-neutron star and power relativistic jets through the stellar progenitor.

• As the structure of such fields is quite uncertain, most numerical models of MHD-driven core-collapse supernovae consider an aligned dipole as initial magnetic field, while the field's morphology can actually be much more complex.
• We present three-dimensional simulations of core-collapse supernovae with more realistic magnetic structures, such as quadrupolar fields and, for the first time, an equatorial dipolar field.
• Configurations other than an aligned dipole produce weaker explosions and less collimated outflows, but can at the same time be more efficient in extracting the rotational energy from the PNS.