This summer, I continued my research with Dr. Kate Scholberg in the Duke Neutrino Group on modeling neutrino emissions from a special, new type of Supernova, called a PDE, or Phase Driven Explosion. A PDE differs from the two known mechanisms that act as a catalyst for a Supernova Event, Neutrino Driven Explosions (NDEs) and Magnetorotational Explosions (MREs) in that its collapse occurs in two segments.
When a massive star hits a critical energy density at the end of its lifetime, the matter at its core begins to transition from hadronic, or “normal” matter into a deconfined quark gluon plasma (“exotic” matter). This transition, called a 1st order Quantum Chromodynamic phase transition, kickstarts the collapse of the star into a Supernova and emits a very specific pattern of small particles called neutrinos. This neutrino pattern consists of a double neutrino spike, which is unique to PDE Supernovae.
My project is the first to model the neutrino energy, luminosity, and flux of a PDE event over time through the supernova detection and modeling software SNOwGLoBES and SNEWPY. I am currently working on modifying particle detector event rate code to compute over a time range, as opposed to the more typical energy range. Continuing into the fall semester, I plan to turn this research into a senior thesis, and compare my simulated data to real supernovae events in order to identify potential supernovae matches.
