What is the Key to the Supernova Explosion Mechanism

Adam Burrows
Princeton University

At the confluence of much of 20th-Century physics,
lies an astrophysical puzzle that has taxed theorists
and the computational arts for almost half a century.
Supernova explosions, the source of much of the heavy elements
in the Universe and the birthplace of neutron stars and
stellar-mass black holes, are still not understood.  However,
using sophisticated numerical tools and platforms, theorists
have been able to conduct multi-dimensional simulations
with increasing physical fidelity that have provided insight
into the variety of phenonoma that attend stellar death
and explosion.  The core of the emerging theoretical
synthesis is the centrality of asphericity and the breaking
of spherical symmetry.  In this talk, I will review the state
of the field, the contending explosion models, and the
connections with other exotic objects, such as gamma-ray
bursts and hypernovae. In the process, I will highlight
the state-of-the-art computational astrophysics which
has been applied to date, and which may be necessary in the
future, to credibly unravel this mystery.