Comprehensive Modeling of Core-Collapse Supernovae

For most of its more than 50 year history, modeling of core-collapse supernovae has been focused on the hundreds of milliseconds around the collapse of the iron core, the birth of the proto-neutron star and the launching of the supernova shockwave. While the physics that occurs in this narrow window is essential to the explosion, most of the observations of these supernovae come hours to weeks to years later as the shockwave lifts the envelope of the star and propels this ejecta into the interstellar medium. Further, we are now finding that the final stages of stellar evolution, occurring minutes to hours before the collapse of the iron core, require multi-dimensional modeling as well. To compare our models to the full panoply of observations, and especially to fulfill the promise of multi-messenger astronomy, we need to build comprehensive models of core-collapse supernovae that stretch from the late days of stellar evolution through the explosion and onto the supernova and supernova remnant phases. I will present some preliminary steps toward this objective to illustrate the importance of spanning the entirety of each core-collapse supernova.