Regular Article

Supernova implosion-explosion in the light of catastrophe theory

¹ Laboratoire de Physique Théorique (UMR 5152 du CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
² Université Aix-Marseille, IRPHE, UMR 7342 CNRS et Centrale Marseille, Technopole de Château-Gombert, 49 rue Joliot-Curie, 13384 Marseille Cedex 13, France
³ ISMO-CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
⁴ Ladhyx, Ecole polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France

^a e-mail: chavanis@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr

Received: 8 September 2019
Published online: 18 December 2019

Abstract

The present understanding of supernova explosion of massive stars as a two-step process, with an initial gravitational collapse toward the center of the star followed by an expansion of matter after a bouncing on the core, meets several difficulties. We show that it is not the only possible one: a simple model based on fluid mechanics, catastrophe theory, and stability properties of the equilibrium state shows that one can have also a simultaneous inward/outward motion in the early stage of the instability of the supernova described by a dynamical saddle-center bifurcation. The existence of this simultaneous inward/outward motion is sensitive to the model in such systems with long-range interactions. If a constant temperature is assumed (canonical ensemble), an overall inward motion occurs, but if one imposes with the same equation of state the constraint of energy conservation (microcanonical ensemble) there is an inward velocity field near the center of the star together with an outward velocity field in the rest of the star. We discuss the expansion stage of the remnants away from the collapsed core, and propose a new explanation for the formation of shock waves in the ejecta which differs from the usual Sedov–Taylor self-similar description.