Bolometric light curves of aspherical shock breakout

Understand

The shock breakout emission is the first light that emerges from a supernova.

• In the spherical case it is characterized by a brief UV flash.
• In an axisymmetric, non-spherical prolate explosion, the shock first breaches the surface along the symmetry axis, then peels around to larger angles, producing a breakout light curve which may differ substantially from the spherically symmetric case.
• We study the emergence of a non-relativistic, bipolar shock from a spherical star, and estimate the basic properties of the associated bolometric shock breakout signal.