Title: Supernova explosion of massive stars driven by hadron-quark phase transition and its signature
Date: Jun 22, 2020
Time: 13:30 - 14:30
Speaker: Dr. Meng-Ru Wu
Affiliation: Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Abstract: The physical mechanism(s) accounting for supernova explosion of massive stars has not been verified by observations. A potential phase-transition from hadronic matter to quark matter at high density during the collapse of a stellar core has been proposed as a possible way to trigger an explosion. In this talk, I will discuss results of Fischer+ 1712.08788 & 2003.00972 in which this scenario was revisited with simulations adopting equations of state which contain such a transition while being compatible with known nuclear and astrophysical constraints. We found that for a star with a progenitor mass of ~ 35 to 50 solar masses, a successful explosion can be obtained by the strong second shockwave resulting from the collapse of the proto-neutron star due to the phase transition. Moreover, such an explosion can lead to a number of interesting consequences, including the formation of a remnant neutron star as heavy as ~ 2 solar mass, the release of a millisecond neutrino burst signal, the potential range of the supernova lightcurve, and the production of r-process nuclei.