TAPIR Seminar

As large-scale transient surveys provide an ever-greater supply of supernovae, we may finally have the ability to answer a key question in core-collapse supernova research: which massive stars explode, and with what range of energies? Rather than the assumption that all stars in a certain range explode, it now seems more likely that real behavior takes the form of a probability of explosion as a function of mass. A large sample of observed supernova progenitors could shed some light on this question and provide new guidance for CCSNe simulations. But progenitor observations are hard to come by, and true observational limits require being able to see not only supernovae that do happen, but also supernovae that don't. In this talk I'll discuss two types of transients that can arise from partially or completely-failed CCSNe and present CASTRO simulations of their evolution and associated lightcurves. In particular, studies of shock breakouts represent both a method for illuminating otherwise faint supernovae and a promising channel for retrieving progenitor information.