Overall Research Project Description Motivated by observations of supernova remnants such as SN 1987A or Tycho, we are investigating links between the supernova progenitor structure, instabilities developing during the explosion process, and characteristics of emerging young supernova remnants. The starting point for such investigations are stellar evolution studies of supernova progenitors.

From practical point of view, stellar evolution calculations require solving a set of coupled, nonlinear ordinary or partial differential equations. In this project, we will be using the MESA code,

http://mesa.sourceforge.net/

to solve the required evolutionary equations. We will obtain a series of stellar models of single and binary stars, and assess sensitivity of the stellar structure to various stellar parameters. These models will subsequently be used as input to supernova explosion codes such as
Agile-IDSA,

http://www.physik.unibas.ch/~liebend/download/index.html

or FLASH,

https://flash.rochester.edu/site/flashcode/

More advanced students may participate in and contribute to the analysis of multiphysics simulation results, such as computing nucleosynthetic yields and obtaining specific characteristics of explosion models.

This project is computationally-oriented and requires practical user knowledge of the Linux/MacOS operating system. In addition, a broader range of topics is available to students fluent with programming languages such as C, C++, Fortran, or Python. Familiarity with simulation data analysis and visualization tools (e.g. Excel, gnuplot) is a plus.

Applications of students who do not have programming skills or do not plan taking a programming class during the first semester of this project are strongly discouraged.

Additional information related to the project can be obtained at

http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~tplewa/Research/index.html#resources