The Early Phase of a Supernova Explosion of a Massive Star in Three-Dimensions

Three-dimensional supernova explosion simulation using the state-of-the-art multiphysics, multi-energy-group radiation/hydrodynamic code Fornax performed by the Princeton University Supernova Theory group. Shown in the center is the the newly-born neutron star (proto-neutron star), colored by electron fraction. The blue veil is the shock wave. The individual streamers are matter parcels sourced outside the domain and followed for a finite time to trace the flow fields. These are colored by local entropy. During the movie, we see the onset and development of the explosion, the turbulence interior to the shock wave, the shrinkage of the proto-neutron star, and the net accretion of spin angular momentum.
Science: Adam Burrows, Hiroki Nagakura, David Vartanyan, and Davide Radice, Princeton University
Visualization: Joseph A. Insley, Argonne National Laboratory and Northern Illinois University; Silvio Rizzi and Janet Knowles, Argonne National Laboratory
An award of computer time was provided by the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. This simulation and visualization were produced using resources of the ALCF at Argonne National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357