In my talk, I will summarise our current understanding of the gravitational radiation emitted by core-collapse supernovae. I will discuss how the emergence of self-consistent three-dimensional numerical simulations played a key role in the understanding of gravitational-wave emission from core-collapse supernovae. I will highlight the characteristics of the signals and show how they connect to physical processes taking place in the core of the exploding star. I will then discuss why the convergence of theoretical predictions are important and how the theoretical and observational community can collaborate to improve the sensitivity of current and future detectors to gravitational waves produced by core-collapse supernovae. I will discuss how the theoretical predictions facilitate the study of the contribution of core-collapse supernovae to the stochastic background signal, the linear memory effect, and multi-messenger observations.
The inner core of an exploding star. The stalled supernova shock can be seen in light blue. During a fraction of a second large-scale turbulence develops and the shock accelerates outwards leading to the destruction of the whole star. Only a newly born neutron-star remain in the center. This video is directly constructed from state-of-the art numerical simulations carried out on one of the worlds largest supercomputers. From the same data we calculate and predict the ripples that echo through space and time in the aftermath of such an event.
Credit: The Garching supernova group, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.