WoU-MMA: Core Collapse Supernova Gravitational Wave Signature Predictions Based on 3D Ab Initio Models with Increasing GR Realism

Core collapse supernova explosions are the death throes of massive stars. They are directly or indirectly responsible for the lion’s share of the elements in the Periodic Table – i.e., the building blocks of matter in the Universe, and of life – making them one of the Universe’s most important phenomena. Such an explosive event involves strong gravity, as described by Einstein (i.e., general relativity); the turbulent fluid flow of the star; the production, transport, and interaction with the star of elementary particles known as neutrinos; and magnetic fields. The neutrinos, aided by the turbulent fluid flow and the magnetic fields, power the explosion. Given such complexity, to understand core collapse supernovae we perform simulations on the world’s leading supercomputers, such as Frontier at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This project has two focuses: (1) Incorporating magnetic fields into our world-leading core collapse supernova simulations. (2) Predicting the gravitational wave emission from core collapse supernovae based on data from these simulations. Core collapse supernovae are one of three sources, the only one not yet detected, of gravitational wave emission for which NSF’s premier facility, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory, the centerpiece of NSF’s Gravitational Physics Program, was designed and built. Core collapse supernovae are the deaths of massive stars and are directly or indirectly responsible for the lion’s share of the elements in the Periodic Table, making them one of the Universe’s most important phenomena. They are multi-physics events involving general relativistic gravity, magnetohydrodynamics, and neutrino transport. The lion’s share of core collapse supernovae is powered by neutrinos, with assistance from instabilities of the stellar core fluid, such as turbulent convection, and stellar core magnetic fields. That magnetic fields aid in powering these explosions has been established. Their inclusion in core collapse supernova simulations is necessary. We focus on their inclusion in our next-generation core collapse supernova simulation framework, thornado, which currently includes modules for general relativistic gravity and hydrodynamics, and will soon include a module for general relativistic neutrino transport as well. thornado is based on numerical methods ideally suited to this application. We also focus on the computation of gravitational wave emission based on simulation data from our current production core collapse supernova simulation framework, Chimera. Core collapse supernovae are among the three sources of gravitational waves for which the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory, NSF’s premier facility, was designed and built, but the only source not yet detected. This project advances the objectives of "Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics", one of the 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.