arXiv subjects

Bernhard Mueller

Publications and source records attributed to Bernhard Mueller.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The Impact of Initial Mass Dependent Convective Boundary Mixing on the Structure and Fates of Massive Stars

While convection has been known to play a key role in stars for many decades, its implementation in one-dimensional stellar evolution codes still represents a major uncertainty today. The purpose of this work is to investigate the impact of initial mass dependent convective boundary mixing (CBM), often referred to as overshooting, on the frequency and type of nuclear burning shell interactions that occur in low metallicity massive stars and the subsequent effect on their fates. Two grids of models were calculated using the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) code and a 22-isotope nuclear network, each with a different strength of CBM applied. One grid uses the typical CBM value for diffusive overshooting used in literature whereas the other grid uses CBM values guided by the results of 3D convection simulations. Interactions between the carbon, neon and oxygen shells (C-Ne-O) are common throughout both grids. The higher CBM grid also exhibits more frequent H-He and He-C interactions at lower initial masses than in the lower CBM grid. Several models also undergo multiple interaction events during evolution. While future work will be needed to fully assess the impact of the new CBM and the interactions it leads to, one expects interesting effects like unusual nucleosynthesis including more common or enhanced i- and gamma-process nucleosynthesis. Furthermore, SN precursors and a significant change to the pre-SN structure are also expected, with many models not having the commonly expected onion-ring like structure and having a different explosion probability.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

3D Synthetic Convective Velocity Fields to Initialise Core-Collapse Supernova Simulations from 1D Progenitors

Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are among the most energetic and complex astrophysical phenomena, requiring threedimensional (3D) simulations to capture their intricate explosion mechanisms. One of the key ingredients for such simulations is the 3D pre-collapse structure, which can impact the development and geometry of the subsequent explosion. While stellar convection simulations can provide such 3D initial conditions, these remain too expensive and demanding for widespread use. In this work, we present a method to generate synthetic 3D velocity fields for convective zones from 1D initial conditions, creating initial conditions for CCSN simulations using a vector spherical harmonics expansion without the need for expensive hydrodynamic progenitor simulations. The synthetic velocity field is designed to capture the typical scales and velocities of the convective flow as the most relevant parameters for the subsequent explosions. In addition, it respects relevant physical constraints such as the near-anelasticity of flow, vanishing radial vorticity, and zero net angular momentum in the convective zones. A Python implementation of this method is publicly available, offering the CCSN community a practical tool for generating synthetic velocity fields for multi-dimensional simulations to study the impact of 3D progenitor asymmetries on the CCSN mechanism.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Hound: Relation-First Knowledge Graphs for Complex-System Reasoning in Security Audits

Hound introduces a relation-first graph engine that improves system-level reasoning across interrelated components in complex codebases. The agent designs flexible, analyst-defined views with compact annotations (e.g., monetary/value flows, authentication/authorization roles, call graphs, protocol invariants) and uses them to anchor exact retrieval: for any question, it loads precisely the code that matters (often across components) so it can zoom out to system structure and zoom in to the decisive lines. A second contribution is a persistent belief system: long-lived vulnerability hypotheses whose confidence is updated as evidence accrues. The agent employs coverage-versus-intuition planning and a QA finalizer to confirm or reject hypotheses. On a five-project subset of ScaBench[1], Hound improves recall and F1 over a baseline LLM analyzer (micro recall 31.2% vs. 8.3%; F1 14.2% vs. 9.8%) with a modest precision trade-off. We attribute these gains to flexible, relation-first graphs that extend model understanding beyond call/dataflow to abstract aspects, plus the hypothesis-centric loop; code and artifacts are released to support reproduction.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2025

Type Ibn supernovae from ultra-stripped supernova progenitors

Ultra-stripped supernovae are core-collapse supernovae from progenitors that lose a significant fraction of mass because of the binary interactions with their compact companion stars. Ultra-stripped supernovae have been connected to fast-evolving faint Type Ib or Ic supernovae. Here, we show that in some cases ultra-stripped supernovae can result in Type Ibn supernovae. Progenitors of ultra-stripped supernovae may trigger violent silicon burning shortly before the core collapse, leading to mass ejection that results in a dense circumstellar matter. By taking an ultra-stripped supernova progenitor that loses 0.2 Msun at 78 days before the core collapse, we compute the light-curve evolution of the ultra-stripped supernova within the dense circumstellar matter. The core collapse results in a supernova explosion with an ejecta mass of 0.06 Msun and an explosion energy of 9e49 erg. Because the dense circumstellar matter is more massive than the supernova ejecta, the ejecta are immediately decelerated and the light curve is powered mainly by the circumstellar interaction. Therefore, this ultra-stripped supernova is likely observed as a Type Ibn supernova. We suggest that some Type Ibn supernovae may originate from ultra-stripped supernova progenitors losing significant mass shortly before their explosion due to violent silicon burning.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Convection and the Core $g$-mode in Proto-Compact Stars -- A detailed analysis

We present a detailed analysis of the dynamics of proto-compact star (PCS) convection and the core ${}^2\!g_1$-mode in core-collapse supernovae based on general relativistic 2D and 3D neutrino hydrodynamics simulations. Based on 2D simulations, we derive a mode relation for the core $g$-mode frequency in terms of PCS and equation of state parameters, and discuss its limits of accuracy. This relation may prove useful for parameter inference from future supernova gravitational wave (GW) signals if the core $g$-mode or an emission gap at the avoided crossing with the fundamental mode can be detected. The current 3D simulation does not show GW emission from the core $g$-mode due to less power in high-frequency convective motions to excite the mode, however. Analysing the dynamics of PCS convection in 3D, we find that simple scaling laws for convective velocity from mixing-length theory (MLT) do not apply. Energy and lepton number transport is instead governed by a more complex balance between neutrino fluxes and turbulent fluxes that results in roughly uniform rates of change of entropy and lepton number in the PCS convection zone. Electron fraction and enthalpy contrasts in PCS convection are not well captured by the MLT gradient approximation. We find distinctly different spectra for the turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent fluctuations in the electron fraction, which scale approximately as $l^{-1}$ without a downturn at low $l$. We suggest that the different turbulence spectrum of the electron fraction is naturally expected for a passive scalar quantity.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

3D Simulations of Magnetoconvection in a Rapidly Rotating Supernova Progenitor

We present a first 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of oxygen, neon and carbon shell burning in a rapidly rotating 16 M_sun core-collapse supernova progenitor. We also run a purely hydrodynamic simulation for comparison. After 180s (15 and 7 convective turnovers respectively), the magnetic fields in the oxygen and neon shells achieve saturation at 10^{11}G and 5 x 10^{10}G. The strong Maxwell stresses become comparable to the radial Reynolds stresses and eventually suppress convection. The suppression of mixing by convection and shear instabilities results in the depletion of fuel at the base of the burning regions, so that the burning shell eventually move outward to cooler regions, thus reducing the energy generation rate. The strong magnetic fields efficiently transport angular momentum outwards, quickly spinning down the rapidly rotating convective oxygen and neon shells and forcing them into rigid rotation. The hydrodynamic model shows complicated redistribution of angular momentum and develops regions of retrograde rotation at the base of the convective shells. We discuss implications of our results for stellar evolution and for the subsequent core-collapse supernova. The rapid redistribution of angular momentum in the MHD model casts some doubt on the possibility of retaining significant core angular momentum for explosions driven by millisecond magnetars. However, findings from multi-D models remain tentative until stellar evolution calculations can provide more consistent rotation profiles and estimates of magnetic field strengths to initialise multi-D simulations without substantial numerical transients. We also stress the need for longer simulations, resolution studies, and an investigation of non-ideal effects.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2023

Three dimensional magnetorotational core-collapse supernova explosions of a 39 solar mass progenitor star

We perform three-dimensional simulations of magnetorotational supernovae using a $39\,M_{\odot}$ progenitor star with two different initial magnetic field strengths of $10^{10}$ G and $10^{12}$ G in the core. Both models rapidly undergo shock revival and their explosion energies asymptote within a few hundred milliseconds to values of $\gtrsim 2\times10^{51}$ erg after conservatively correcting for the binding energy of the envelope. Magnetically collimated, non-relativistic jets form in both models, though the jets are subject to non-axisymmetric instabilities. The jets do not appear crucial for driving the explosion, as they only emerge once the shock has already expanded considerably. Our simulations predict moderate neutron star kicks of about $150\, \mathrm{km}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$, no spin-kick alignment, and rapid early spin-down that would result in birth periods of about $20\, \mathrm{ms}$, too slow to power an energetic gamma-ray burst jet. More than $0.2\,M_\odot$ of iron-group material are ejected, but we estimate that the mass of ejected $^{56}\mathrm{Ni}$ will be considerably smaller as the bulk of this material is neutron-rich. Explosive burning does not contribute appreciable amounts of $^{56}\mathrm{Ni}$ because the burned material originates from the slightly neutron-rich silicon shell. The iron-group ejecta also show no pronounced bipolar geometry by the end of the simulations. The models thus do not immediately fit the characteristics of observed hypernovae, but may be representative of other transients with moderately high explosion energies. The gravitational-wave emission reaches high frequencies of up to 2000 Hz and amplitudes of over 100 cm. The gravitational-wave emission is detectable out to distances of $\sim4$ Mpc in the planned Cosmic Explorer detector.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

3D Simulations of Strongly Magnetised Non-Rotating Supernovae: Explosion Dynamics and Remnant Properties

We investigate the impact of strong initial magnetic fields in core-collapse supernovae of non-rotating progenitors by simulating the collapse and explosion of a 16.9 Msun star for a strong- and weak-field case assuming a twisted-torus field with initial central field strengths of ~1012 G and ~106 G. The strong-field model has been set up with a view to the fossil-field scenario for magnetar formation and emulates a pre-collapse field configuration that may occur in massive stars formed by a merger. This model undergoes shock revival already 100 s after bounce and reaches an explosion energy of 9.3 x 10^50 erg at 310 ms, in contrast to a more delayed and less energetic explosion in the weak-field model. The strong magnetic fields help trigger a neutrino-driven explosion early on, which results in a rapid rise and saturation of the explosion energy. Dynamically, the strong initial field leads to a fast build-up of magnetic fields in the gain region to 40% of kinetic equipartition and also creates sizable pre-shock ram pressure perturbations that are known to be conducive to asymmetric shock expansion. For the strong-field model, we find an extrapolated neutron star kick of ~350 km/s, a spin period of ~70 ms, and no spin-kick alignment. The dipole field strength of the proto-neutron star is 2 x 10^14 G by the end of the simulation with a declining trend. Surprisingly, the surface dipole field in the weak-field model is stronger, which argues against a straightforward connection between pre-collapse fields and the birth magnetic fields of neutron stars.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

The Role of the Hadron-Quark Phase Transition in Core-Collapse Supernovae

The hadron-quark phase transition in quantum chromodyanmics has been suggested as an alternative explosion mechanism for core-collapse supernovae. We study the impact of three different hadron-quark equations of state (EoS) with first-order (DD2F\_SF, STOS-B145) and second-order (CMF) phase transitions on supernova dynamics by performing 97 simulations for solar- and zero-metallicity progenitors in the range of $14\texttt{-}100\,\text{M}_\odot$. We find explosions only for two low-compactness models ($14 \text{M}_\odot$ and $16\,\text{M}_\odot$) with the DD2F\_SF EoS, both with low explosion energies of $\mathord{\sim}10^{50}\,\mathrm{erg}$. These weak explosions are characterised by a neutrino signal with several mini-bursts in the explosion phase due to complex reverse shock dynamics, in addition to the typical second neutrino burst for phase-transition driven explosions. The nucleosynthesis shows significant overproduction of nuclei such as $^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$ for the $14\,\text{M}_\odot$ zero-metallicity model and $^{94}\mathrm{Zr}$ for the $16\,\text{M}_\odot$ solar-metallicity model, but the overproduction factors are not large enough to place constraints on the occurrence of such explosions. Several other low-compactness models using the DD2F\_SF EoS and two high-compactness models using the STOS EoS end up as failed explosions and emit a second neutrino burst. For the CMF EoS, the phase transition never leads to a second bounce and explosion. For all three EoS, inverted convection occurs deep in the core of the proto-compact star due to anomalous behaviour of thermodynamic derivatives in the mixed phase, which heats the core to entropies up to $4k_\text{B}/\text{baryon}$ and may have a distinctive gravitational wave signature, also for a second-order phase transition.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

The Next Generation Global Gravitational Wave Observatory: The Science Book

The next generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will observe coalescences of black holes and neutron stars throughout the cosmos, thousands of them with exceptional fidelity. The Science Book is the result of a 3-year effort to study the science capabilities of networks of next generation detectors. Such networks would make it possible to address unsolved problems in numerous areas of physics and astronomy, from Cosmology to Beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, and how they could provide insights into workings of strongly gravitating systems, astrophysics of compact objects and the nature of dense matter. It is inevitable that observatories of such depth and finesse will make new discoveries inaccessible to other windows of observation. In addition to laying out the rich science potential of the next generation of detectors, this report provides specific science targets in five different areas in physics and astronomy and the sensitivity requirements to accomplish those science goals. This report is the second in a six part series of reports by the GWIC 3G Subcommittee: i) Expanding the Reach of Gravitational Wave Observatories to the Edge of the Universe, ii) The Next Generation Global Gravitational Wave Observatory: The Science Book (this report), iii) 3G R&D: R&D for the Next Generation of Ground-based Gravitational Wave Detectors, iv) Gravitational Wave Data Analysis: Computing Challenges in the 3G Era, v) Future Ground-based Gravitational-wave Observatories: Synergies with Other Scientific Communities, and vi) An Exploration of Possible Governance Models for the Future Global Gravitational-Wave Observatory Network.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

A Comparison of 2D Magnetohydrodynamic Supernova Simulations with the CoCoNuT-FMT and Aenus-Alcar Codes

Code comparisons are a valuable tool for the verification of supernova simulation codes and the quantification of model uncertainties. Here we present a first comparison of axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) supernova simulations with the CoCoNuT-FMT and Aenus-Alcar codes, which use distinct methods for treating the MHD induction equation and the neutrino transport. We run two sets of simulations of a rapidly rotating 35M gamma-ray burst progenitor model with different choices for the initial field strength, namely 10^12 G for the maximum poloidal and toroidal field in the strong-field case and 10^10 G in the weak-field case. We also investigate the influence of the Riemann solver and the resolution in CoCoNuT-FMT. The dynamics is qualitatively similar for both codes and robust with respect to these numerical details, with a rapid magnetorotational explosion in the strong-field case and a delayed neutrino-driven explosion in the weak-field case. Despite relatively similar shock trajectories, we find sizeable differences in many other global metrics of the dynamics, like the explosion energy and the magnetic energy of the proto-neutron star. Further differences emerge upon closer inspection, for example, the disk-like surface structure of the proto-neutron star proves highly sensitives to numerical details. The electron fraction distribution in the ejecta as a crucial determinant for the nucleosynthesis is qualitatively robust, but the extent of neutron- or proton-rich tails is sensitive to numerical details. Due to the complexity of the dynamics, the ultimate cause of model differences can rarely be uniquely identified, but our comparison helps gauge uncertainties inherent in current MHD supernova simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Nucleosynthesis of an $11.8\,M_\odot$ Supernova with 3D Simulation of the Inner Ejecta: Overall Yields and Implications for Short-Lived Radionuclides in the Early Solar System

Based on a 3D supernova simulation of an $11.8\,M_\odot$ progenitor model with initial solar composition, we study the nucleosynthesis using tracers covering the innermost $0.1\,M_\odot$ of the ejecta. These ejecta are mostly proton-rich and contribute significant amounts of $^{45}$Sc and $^{64}$Zn. The production of heavier isotopes is sensitive to the electron fraction and hence the neutrino emission from the proto-neutron star. The yields of these isotopes are rather uncertain due to the approximate neutrino transport used in the simulation. In order to obtain the total yields for the whole supernova, we combine the results from the tracers with those for the outer layers from a suitable 1D model. Using the yields of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs), we explore the possibility that an $11.8\,M_\odot$ supernova might have triggered the formation of the solar system and provided some of the SLRs measured in meteorites. In particular, we discuss two new scenarios that can account for at least the data on $^{41}$Ca, $^{53}$Mn, and $^{60}$Fe without exceeding those on the other SLRs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

A Novel Multi-Dimensional Boltzmann Neutrino Transport Scheme for Core-Collapse Supernovae

We introduce a new discrete-ordinate scheme for solving the general relativistic Boltzmann transport equation in the context of core-collapse supernovae. Our algorithm avoids the need to spell out the complicated advection terms in energy and angle that arise when the transport equation is formulated in spherical polar coordinates, in the comoving frame, or in a general relativistic spacetime. We instead approach the problem by calculating the advection of neutrinos across momentum space using an intuitive particle-like approach that has excellent conservation properties and fully accounts for Lorentz boosts, general relativistic effects, and grid geometry terms. In order to avoid the need for a global implicit solution, time integration is performed using a locally implicit Lax-Wendroff scheme that correctly reproduces the diffusion limit. This will facilitate the use of our method on massively parallel distributed-memory architectures. We have verified the accuracy and stability of our scheme with a suite of test problems in spherical symmetry and axisymmetry. To demonstrate that the new algorithm works stably in core-collapse supernova simulations, we have coupled it to the general relativistic hydrodynamics code CoCoNuT and present a first demonstration run of a $20M_\odot$ progenitor with a reduced set of neutrino opacities.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

The impact of fallback on the compact remnants and chemical yields of core-collapse supernovae

Fallback in core-collapse supernovae plays a crucial role in determining the properties of the compact remnants and of the ejecta composition. We perform three-dimensional simulations of mixing and fallback for selected non-rotating supernova models to study how explosion energy and asymmetries correlate with the remnant mass, remnant kick, and remnant spin. We find that the strongest kick and spin is imparted by partial fallback in an asymmetric explosion. Black hole (BH) kicks of several hundred $\mathrm{km}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and spin parameters of $\mathord{\sim}0.25$ can be obtained in this scenario. If the initial explosion energy barely exceeds the envelope binding energy, stronger fallback results, and the remnant kick and spin remain small. If the explosion energy is high with respect to the envelope binding energy, there is little fallback with a small effect on the remnant kick, but the spin-up by fallback can be substantial. For a non-rotating $12\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ progenitor, we find that the neutron star (NS) is spun up to millisecond periods. The high specific angular momentum of the fallback material can also lead to disk formation around black holes. Fallback may thus be a pathway towards millisecond-magnetar or collapsar-type engines for hypernovae and gamma-ray bursts that does not require rapid progenitor rotation. Within our small set of simulations, none reproduced the peculiar layered fallback necessary to explain the metal-rich iron-poor composition of many carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. Models with different explosion energy and different realisations of asymmetries may, however, be compatible with CEMP abundance patterns.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

The Yet-Unobserved Multi-Messenger Gravitational-Wave Universe

Observations with next-generation ground-based detectors further enhanced with multi-messenger (electromagnetic and neutrino) detections will allow us to probe new extreme astrophysics. Target sources included: core-collapse supernovae, continuous emission from isolated or accreting neutron stars, and bursts from magnetars and other pulsars.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Nucleosynthesis in Primordial Hypernovae

We investigate the relationship between explosion energy and nucleosynthesis in Population III supernovae and provide nucleosynthetic results for the explosions of stars with progenitor masses of $15\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, $20\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, $30\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, $40\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, $60\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, and $80\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, and explosion energies between approximately $10^{50}$ erg and $10^{53}$ erg. We find that the typical abundance pattern observed in metal-poor stars are best matched by supernovae with progenitor mass in the range $15\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ - $30\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$, and explosion energy of $\sim$ ($5$ - $10$) $\times$ $10^{51}$ erg. In these models, a reverse shock caused by jumps in density between shells of different composition serves to decrease synthesis of chromium and manganese, which is favourable to matching the observed abundances in metal-poor stars. Spherically symmetric explosions of our models with progenitor mass $\geq$ $40\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ do not provide yields that are compatible with the iron-peak abundances that are typically observed in metal-poor stars, however, by approximating the yields that we might expect from these models in highly aspherical explosions, we find indications that explosions of stars $40\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ - $80\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ with bipolar jets may be good candidates for the enrichment sources of metal-poor stars with enhanced carbon abundances.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Gravitational Wave Signals from 3D Neutrino Hydrodynamics Simulations of Core-Collapse Supernovae

We present gravitational wave (GW) signal predictions from four 3D multi-group neutrino hydrodynamics simulations of core-collapse supernovae of progenitors with 11.2 Msun, 20 Msun, and 27 Msun. GW emission in the pre-explosion phase strongly depends on whether the post-shock flow is dominated by the standing accretion shock instability (SASI) or convection and differs considerably from 2D models. SASI activity produces a strong signal component below 250 Hz through asymmetric mass motions in the gain layer and a non-resonant coupling to the proto-neutron star (PNS). Both convection- and SASI-dominated models show GW emission above 250 Hz, but with considerably lower amplitudes than in 2D. This is due to a different excitation mechanism for high-frequency l=2 motions in the PNS surface, which are predominantly excited by PNS convection in 3D. Resonant excitation of high-frequency surface g-modes in 3D by mass motions in the gain layer is suppressed compared to 2D because of smaller downflow velocities and a lack of high-frequency variability in the downflows. In the exploding 20 Msun model, shock revival results in enhanced low-frequency emission due to a change of the preferred scale of the convective eddies in the PNS convection zone. Estimates of the expected excess power in two frequency bands suggests that second-generation detectors will only be able to detect very nearby events, but that third-generation detectors could distinguish SASI- and convection-dominated models at distances of ~10 kpc.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Supernova deleptonization asymmetry: Impact on self-induced flavor conversion

During the accretion phase of a core-collapse supernova (SN), the deleptonization flux has recently been found to develop a global dipole pattern (LESA---Lepton Emission Self-sustained Asymmetry). The $ν_e$ minus $\barν_e$ flux essentially vanishes in one direction, potentially facilitating self-induced flavor conversion. On the other hand, below the stalled shock wave, self-induced flavor conversion is typically suppressed by multi-angle matter effects, preventing any impact of flavor conversion on SN explosion dynamics. In a schematic model of SN neutrino fluxes, we study the impact of modified $\barν_e$-$ν_e$ flux asymmetries on collective flavor conversion. In the parameter space consisting of matter density and effective neutrino density, the region of instability with regard to self-induced flavor conversion is much larger for a vanishing lepton number flux, yet this modification does not intersect a realistic SN profile. Therefore, it appears that, even in the presence of LESA, self-induced flavor conversion remains suppressed below the shock front.

hep-ph↗