We study the physics of core-collapse supernovae and the neutron stars they create. We study the microphysics of neutrino interactions and demonstrate the importance of two processes previously ignored in full supernova simulations: inelastic neutrino-nucleon scattering and nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung. We show that these processes dominate neutrino-electron scattering and electron-positron annihilation as thermalization and production mechanisms, respectively, for mu- and tau-neutrinos in regimes vital to emergent spectrum formation. In addition, we solve the general-relativistic steady-state eigenvalue problem of neutrino-driven protoneutron star winds, which immediately follow core-collapse supernova explosions. We provide velocity, density, temperature, and composition profiles and explore the systematics and structures generic to such a wind for a variety of protoneutron star characteristics. Furthermore, we derive the entropy, dynamical timescale, and compositions essential in assessing this site as a candidate for r-process nucleosynthesis. Finally, we construct dynamical models of core-collapse supernovae. We employ a full solution to the transport equation for each neutrino species, a realistic high-density nuclear equation of state, and explicit hydrodynamics. We present results from a set of different supernova progenitors. We vary the microphysics and nuclear equation of state and compare our results to those of other groups. We examine the electron-neutrino breakout phenomenon and address the importance of nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung and inelastic neutrino-electron scattering in mu and tau neutrino spectrum formation. We convolve the emergent spectra obtained in these models with terrestrial neutrino detectors and find that the electron-neutrino breakout burst can likely be observed and identified uniquely.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/289816 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Thompson, Todd A. |
| Contributors | Burrows, Adam, Toussaint, Doug |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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