
A team of researchers at the Institute of Astronomy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has achieved groundbreaking insights into the physics of supernova shock waves.
Using the institute's powerful Kawas computing cluster, the team spent more than two years performing intensive calculations to develop the world's first two-dimensional multi-wavelength simulations of radiation hydrodynamics. These advanced simulations provided a detailed understanding of the shock wave bursts by accurately modeling the interaction of photons of different energies with the shock wave dynamics.
This breakthrough allows scientists to compare simulated shockwave flash signals directly with real observational data, improving our ability to study and predict supernovae. The team's findings are published in the latest issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
Formation of supernovae
Massive stars, which are between 10 and 30 times the mass of the Sun, undergo dramatic changes in the final stages of their lives. As they near their end, they develop an iron core that eventually collapses under its own gravity, forming a neutron star. This collapse releases a huge amount of gravitational energy, mainly through neutrinos, which trigger a powerful shock wave that tears the star apart.
The shock wave travels through the star at supersonic speeds and plays a central role in the supernova explosion. When it reaches the star, the energy from the shock wave begins to spread outward, creating an extremely powerful flash of light, known as the "supernova shock wave burst." The duration of this flash depends on the size and mass of the star, and is usually only a few hours. Most of the radiation from this event is emitted in X-rays and ultraviolet light, appearing long before the explosion becomes visible to the naked eye.
Because the shock wave burst occurs early in the supernova process, it serves as a valuable early warning signal, helping astronomers predict when a star is about to explode.

Insights from simulations about the supernova 1987A
The team's simulations focused on the famous supernova 1987A, which provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution from core-collapse supernovae to supernova remnants. The study reveals that the environment of the source star significantly influences the burst's flash, suggesting that this flash can be used to study the conditions surrounding supernova explosions and infer the relationship between the surrounding medium and the star's mass loss.
The multidimensional simulations showed that flow instability during the shock wave burst increases the brightness of the flash and prolongs its duration, results that differ significantly from previous one-dimensional simulations, and fundamentally change our understanding of supernova explosion flashes.
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