The Progenitor-Remnant Connection of Neutrino-Driven Supernovae Across the Stellar Mass Range

We perform hydrodynamic supernova (SN) simulations in spherical symmetry for progenitor models with solar metallicity across the stellar mass range from 9.0 to 120 M _⊙ to explore the progenitor-explosion and progenitor-remnant connections based on the neutrino-driven mechanism. We use an approximative treatment of neutrino transport and replace the high-density interior of the neutron star (NS) by an inner boundary condition based on an analytic proto-NS core-cooling model, whose free parameters are chosen to reproduce the observables of SN 1987A and the Crab SN for theoretical models of their progenitor stars.

Judging the fate of a massive star, either a neutron star (NS) or a black hole (BH), solely by its structure prior to collapse has been ambiguous. Our work and previous attempts find a non-monotonic variation of successful and failed supernovae with zero-age main-sequence mass. We identify two parameters based on the ``critical luminosity'' concept for neutrino-driven explosions, which in combination allows for a clear separation of exploding and non-exploding cases.

Continuing our simulations beyond shock break-out, we are able to determine nucleosynthesis, light curves, explosion energies, and remnant masses. The resulting NS initial mass function has a mean gravitational mass near 1.4 M _⊙. The average BH mass is about 9 M _⊙ if only the helium core implodes, and 14 M _⊙ if the entire pre-SN star collapses. Only ~10% of SNe come from stars over 20 M _⊙, and some of these are Type Ib or Ic.