Impacts of Multidimensional Progenitor Perturbations on Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

Abstract

Numerical studies of core-collapse supernovae have demonstrated the importance of non-radial motions in pre-collapse progenitors on the explosion outcome. We use the CHIMERA neutrino radiation hydrodynamics code running seven two-dimensional simulations of 15 solar mass progenitors with different progenitor structures introduced by different one and two-dimensional pre-collapse stellar evolution environments to examine the impacts of stellar structure and non-spherical motion in the pre-collapse progenitor on the development of explosions. We compare the explosion evolution of these models in terms of shock dynamics, diagnostic energy, neutrino heating, accretion, explosion geometry, nuclear abundances, and turbulent convection. We also analyze how stochastic variation impacts our simulations. Contrary to results reported in prior studies examining the impacts of multi-dimensional progenitors, we observe similar shock revival times and explosion development in our simulations despite differences in initial compositions and structures. We find no discernible impact from the accretion of non-radial perturbations from a multi-D progenitor onto the stalled shock in the revival and strength of explosion, as fully developed neutrino-driven convection behind the stalled shock is similar for all our models. For models with physically sourced noise in the iron core, a strong oscillation of the shock occurs after bounce and deflects infall laterally, and accelerates the saturation of the lateral turbulent kinetic energy. An examination of model stochasticity shows that any prior expected impacts on explosive outcome due to convection-related perturbations lie below the detectable threshold of numerical variation.