3d supernovae collapse calculations

We give a brief overview of the current understanding of the explosion mechanism of core collapse supernovae. Our main focus is the impact of rotation on the explosion. Recent observations of the polarization of the light emitted by supernova explosions indicate that there are large deviations from spherical symmetry in the very heart of the explosion the origin of which is unknown. We use the new approach of a three dimensional test particle based simulation to simulate the infall phase of a supernova event. The underlying microphysics is simplified to make this computationally possible. A systematic study of the influence of rotation mainly during the infall phase of the collapse of a typical iron core is performed. Indications for significant deviations from spherical symmetry are found in our very rapidly rotating models. © 2002 American Institute of Physics