Productive 3D  Models of Stellar Explosions

It is a long-standing problem to perform reliable three-dimensional computer models of astrophysical objects due to the large scale-differences in time and space, due to the radiative transfer that determines the long-distance observation, and due to the many degrees of freedom in the local interaction between fluid instabilities, the radiation field and the magnetic fields in gravitationally bound objects. We focus on stellar core-collapse supernova explosions, which still pose proof-of-principle questions regarding their explosion mechanism, for which detailed observations are available in almost all astronomical windows, which probe matter under interesting conditions that are not accessible in terrestrial experiments, and whose nucleosynthetic yields provide a key to the understanding of Galactic evolution. State-of-the-art supernova models in axisymmetry with accurate radiative transfer take many months of wallclock time. With this project, we aim to boost this performance by several orders of magnitude to permit realistic 3D models. This can be achieved by restricting the models to the indispensable physics, by refactoring the current code using optimized algorithms for the Poisson and Diffusion-Advection equations and by exploiting new computer architectures. With this jump in performance one can explore the large parameter space of progenitor star masses, rotation rates, magnetic fields, and composition in order to clarify the supernova explosion mechanism(s).

• Prof. Martin J. Gander, University of Geneva
• Prof. SNF Matthias Liebendörfer, University of Basel

• Dr. Heiko Berninger, University of Geneva
• Dr. Ruben Cabezon, University of Basel
• Roger Käppeli, University of Basel
• Dr. Felix Kwok, University of Geneva
• Jerome Michaud, University of Geneva
• Albino Perego, University of Basel
• Dr. Nicolas Vasset, University of Basel