Proto-Neutron Star Evolution
Luke Roberts, University of California, Santa Cruz
After a successful core collapse supernova explosion, a neutron star is often left as a compact remnant. During the first minute of the neutron star's life, it cools and contracts from its initial high temperature state by emitting a prodigious number of neutrinos. If observed from a galactic supernova, these neutrinos would provide a direct window into matter at nuclear densities. To study in detail how this cooling occurs and how various macro- and microphysical processes might affect the cooling, we have developed a general relativistic neutrino transport/stellar structure code. This is coupled to a field-theoretical nuclear equation of state and neutrino diffusion coefficients that are calculated consistently with the equation of state. We have also implemented a one-dimensional model for time dependent convection. I will present initial results on how the neutrino cooling timescale is affected by convection, weak magnetism corrections to the neutrino capture rates, and the proto-neutron star's mass.
Abstract Author(s): Luke RobertsVincenzo Cirigliano Jose PonsSanjay Reddy