The prompt-shock supernova mechanism. II - Supranuclear EOS behavior and the precollapse model

The author's study of the prompt shock mechanism continues with an investigation of the effect of the softness of the supranuclear behavior of the equation of state (EOS), and of the structure of the precollapse core model. Three different levels of neutrino transport were incorporated in the calculations. When neutrino-electron scattering (NES) is turned off and only e-type neutrinos are transported, vigorous explosions are produced for a wide range of supranuclear EOS parameters and initial models. The inclusion of NES requires soft supranuclear behavior and low mass and entropy precollapse models for successful explosions. the inclusion of all neutrino flavors further reduces the available parameter space and restricts the precollapse core configurations for successful explosions. It is found that the current generation of precollapse models do not produce prompt-shock explosions when the most realistic/optimistic physics is used. The requisite modifications of the precollapse models for successful prompt-shock explosions are discussed.