Characterizing the Gravitational Wave Signal from Core-collapse Supernovae

We study the gravitational wave (GW) signal from eight new 3D core-collapse supernova simulations. We show that the signal is dominated by f- and g-mode oscillations of the protoneutron star (PNS) and its frequency evolution encodes the contraction rate of the latter, which, in turn, is known to depend on the star’s mass, on the equation of state, and on transport properties in warm nuclear matter. A lower-frequency component of the signal, associated with the standing accretion shock instability, is found in only one of our models. Finally, we show that the energy radiated in GWs is proportional to the amount of turbulent energy accreted by the PNS.