Astro Seminar: Hans-Thomas Janka

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Hans-Thomas Janka (MPA/TUM)

Title: Chemical-Element Asymmetries in Core-Collapse Supernovae as Tracers of Compact Remnant Kicks and Progenitor Mixing

Abstract: Observations of supernovae and nearby supernova remnants as well as 3D simulations of these events provide evidence that the mechanism of the explosion is highly asymmetric. This yields a natural explanation of the large space velocities of many observed pulsars and the natal kicks of neutron stars and black holes concluded from binary orbital properties. Moreover, it also leads to large-scale asymmetries of the chemical elements expelled by the explosions, which can be correlated or anti-correlated with the compact-object kicks. Well studied supernova remnants in our Galaxy confirm such a tight connection and also begin to carve out signatures of strong shell-mixing processes in the massive stars prior to their core collapse, pointing to an intrinsically 3D nature of supernova progenitors.