Perspectives of Core-Collapse Supernovae beyond SN 1987A

Abstract

The observation of neutrinos from Supernova 1987A has confirmed the theoretical conjecture that these particles play a crucial role during the collapse of the core of a massive star. Only one per cent of the energy they carry away from the newly formed neutron star may account for all the kinetic and electromagnetic energy responsible for the spectacular display of the supernova explosion. However, the neutrinos emitted from the collapsed stellar core at the center of the explosion couple so weakly to the surrounding matter that convective processes behind the supernova shock and/or inside the nascent neutron star might be required to increase the efficiency of the energy transfer to the stellar mantle and envelope. The conditions for a successful explosion by the neutrino-heating mechanism and the possible importance of convection in and around the neutron star are shortly discussed. Neutrino-driven explosions turn out to be very sensitive to the parameters describing the neutrino emission of the proto-neutron star and to the details of the dynamical processes in the collapsed stellar core. Therefore uniform explosions with a well defined energy seem unlikely and type-II supernova explosions do not offer promising perspectives for being useful as standard candles.