3-D supernovae and CP violation

Some cool science news:

1. New simulations of supernova explosions by Müller's group at MPIA show significant differences in behaviour from previous antisymmetric 2-D simulations (MPIA press release, which is also the source of the image shown on the right).

The new computer models of the team at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics can now for the first time simulate the complete burst in all three dimensions, from the first milliseconds after the explosion is triggered in the core to a time three hours later, when the shock breaks out of the progenitor star. "We found substantial deviations in our 3D models compared to previous work in 2D," says Nicolay Hammer, the lead author of the paper, "especially the growth of instabilities and the propagation of clumps differ. These are not just minor variations; this effect determines the long-time evolution and ultimately the extent of mixing and observable appearance of core-collapse supernovae."

In the 3D-simulations, metal-rich clumps have much higher velocities than in the 2D case. These "bullets" expand much more rapidly, overtaking material from the outer layers. "With a simple analytic model we could demonstrate that the different geometry of the bullets, toroidal versus quasi-spherical, can explain the differences observed in our simulations," explains co-author Thomas Janka. "While we think that the differences between the 2D- and 3D-models that we found are probably generic, many features will depend strongly on the structure of the progenitor star, the overall energy and the initial asymmetry of the blast."

"We hope that our models, in comparison to observations, will help us to understand how stellar explosions start and what causes them", adds Ewald Müller, the third author of the paper. Investigating a wider variety of progenitor stars and initial conditions will therefore be the focus of future simulation work. In particular, a detailed model that reproduces all observational features of SN 1987A still remains a challenge.

Neat. May also have implications for superwinds, as there again we have a case of the acceleration and motion of dense clumps.

2. The DZero collaboration have found evidence for a 1%-level matter/anti-matter asymmetry (Fermilab press release)., i.e. much larger than previous examples of CP violation.

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will go to the ISS!

In a surprisingly bi-partisan decision (409 to 15) the House overwhelming voted more funding for NASA, despite Bush's stated opposition (AP story here).

Part of the extra funding goes toward an additional Shuttle launch that will take the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the Space Station. Seeing as a lot of money has already been spent on building the AMS and storing it in a warehouse near DC for the last few years, actually using the thing is good for the both the tax-payer and science.

[Expanded diagram of the AMS-02 detector image from http://cyclo.mit.edu/~bmonreal/detector_intro.html ]