A Theory of Supernova Explosions

Abstract

The progress of supernova theory has been stunted by the exclusive reliance on complicated numerical simulations that are difficult to diagnose and published rarely. Under the assumption that the bounce shock generated in stellar collapse does indeed stall into accretion, we derive a critical condition between the luminosity and the accretion mass flux such that accretion becomes explosion. We have discovered that there is a finite range of neutrino luminosities for which there can be a steady state shock. The theory we develop provides a paradigm for understanding the neutrino heating mechanism of Wilson (1985) and is analytic, in that it involves only ordinary differential equations