Moving Supernovae Beyond the Standard model: A Study of Neutrino Flavor Mixing in Core-Collapse Supernovae

麦肯齐·沃伦被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学奖学金，在密歇根州立大学开展一个研究和教育项目。沃伦将使用计算机模拟来研究被称为中微子的微小亚原子粒子如何影响恒星的超新星爆炸。超新星是创造和分散构成宇宙的大部分元素的引擎，而中微子有一种奇怪的能力，可以改变它们的本质或味道，物理学家称之为“味道混合”。沃伦的工作将是第一个将中微子混合味添加到现有的复杂的超新星模型中，这些模型是由垂死的大质量恒星的核心坍缩产生的。这将帮助天文学家更好地了解超新星是如何爆炸的，以及它是如何产生元素的。沃伦还将与一个外展项目合作，在公共场所举办免费的天文之夜，目的是接触那些没有参与大多数科学外展工作的社区。Warren将在FLASH超新星代码中加入一个中微子混合模型，以研究中微子混合的影响，包括物质增强和中微子自相互作用对核心坍缩超新星（CCSNe）的影响。该项目将使用球对称和二维模拟来研究中微子风味变换对超新星前身范围的影响，特别是对核合成、易爆性、可观测中微子信号、中微子驱动风的开始以及由此产生的中子星和黑洞质量分布的影响。这将导致对超新星中微子的更全面的了解，这反过来将为观测到的CCSNe中微子的解释提供信息，并提高我们对CCSNe对星系化学演化的贡献的认识。为了向公众提供天文学外展，沃伦将与Popscope项目的兰辛分会合作，将望远镜带到公共活动和公共空间，并吸引路人。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

MacKenzie Warren is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Michigan State University. Warren will use computer simulations to study how tiny subatomic particles called neutrinos affect supernova explosions of stars. Supernovae are the engines that create and disperse most of the elements that make up the universe, and neutrinos have the strange ability to change their essence, or flavor, a behavior that physicists call "flavor mixing.' Warren's work will be the first to add neutrino flavor mixing to existing sophisticated models of supernovae arising from the collapse of the core of a dying massive star. This will help astronomers to better understand how a supernova explodes and how it creates elements. Warren will also work with an outreach program to host free astronomy nights in public spaces, with the aim of reaching communities that are not otherwise engaged by most science outreach efforts.Warren will incorporate a model of neutrino flavor mixing into the FLASH supernova code to study the effects of neutrino mixing, including matter enhancements and neutrino self-interactions on core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). This project will use both spherically symmetric and two-dimensional simulations to study the effect of neutrino flavor transformations on the range of supernova progenitors, in particular the impact on nucleosynthesis, explodability, the observable neutrino signal, the onset of the neutrino driven winds, and the resultant neutron star and black hole mass distribution. This will lead to a more complete understanding of supernova neutrinos, which in turn will inform the interpretation of observed CCSNe neutrinos and improve our knowledge of the contribution of CCSNe to galactic chemical evolution. To provide astronomy outreach to the public, Warren will work with the Lansing chapter of the Popscope program to take telescopes to public events and public spaces and engage passersby.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.