by Ira Polans

Adam Burrows, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, is the Director of the Princeton Planets and Life Certificate Program. Well-known as a pioneer in the theory of exoplanets, brown dwarfs, and supernovae, he has written numerous influential papers and reviews on these subjects during the last ~30 years. He has collaborated with more than 250 co-authors on more than 350 papers and given more than 300 invited talks and colloquia. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the 2010 Beatrice M. Tinsley Centennial Professor, and a former Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

Dr. Burrows will talk on “Core-Collapse Supernova Theory”. Using university’s state-of-the-art code Fornax he and colleagues have simulated the collapse and explosion of the cores of many massive-star models in three spatial dimensions. This is the most comprehensive set of realistic 3D core-collapse supernova simulations yet performed and has provided very important insights into the mechanism and character of this almost 60-year-old astrophysical puzzle. Importantly, most multi-D models explode without artifice by the neutrino mechanism, aided by the effects of neutrino-driven turbulence. Dr. Burrows will present detailed results from this suite of runs and the novel conclusions derived from their new capacity to simulate many 3D, as opposed to 2D and 1D, full physics models every year. This new capability, enabled by a new algorithm and modern HPC assets, is poised to transform our understanding of this central astrophysical phenomenon.