3D simulations of a complete convective silicon shell burning phase

Abstract

We present 3D hydrodynamic simulations of a complete silicon shell burning phase until fuel exhaustion at the end of the evolution of a 14$M_\odot$ core-collapse supernova progenitor, using a reduced 25-isotope nuclear network. We investigate how realistic turbulent convection affects this burning phase, which has a more complicated set of nuclear reactions than previous burning phases. We find broad similarities between the 3D simulation and the 1D \textsc{MESA} model. However, due to more realistic feedback from the very stiff convective boundaries in the hydrodynamic simulations, the 3D simulation experiences lower convective boundary mixing (CMB) compared to 1D, and hence entrains less fresh fuel into the silicon shell. This leads to the silicon shell in the 3D model burning for roughly 800\,s shorter. We find that the nuclear burning timescales for the dominant reactions are faster than the mixing timescale, making this entire process a convective-reactive event. The angular-averaged energy generation profile shows a double-peaked structure, where the region between the positive peaks are close to zero, or are negative. We find that throughout the base of this silicon shell, many $(α, p)$ and their inverse reactions are important. The forward and reverse rates are very similar, so slight fluctuations in the temperature cause regions to be either exoergic or endoergic, leading to a complicated energy generation evolution. This study presents an exploration using a single reduced nuclear network, however, due to the sensitivity of this burning phase future studies should investigate the impact of more complete nuclear networks.