Gravitational Waves as a Probe of Core Collapse Supernova Progenitor Structure

Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are the energetic deaths of massive stars leading to the births of neutron stars and black holes. They are also the source of many important elements in the Universe, including the lion's share of elements essential for life. CCSNe generate rare transient signals in the form of gravitational waves (GWs) and neutrinos. We can analyze these signals to understand the properties of the star before it exploded. In this project we investigate the GW signatures of two 2D CCSN simulations. These simulations consisted of exploding two similarly-massed massive stars of 15.78 and 15.79 Solar masses, respectively. We aimed to study the differences between the GW signatures and source the cause of these differences. From our analysis, we were able to determine that funnels hitting the surface of the proto-neutron star (PNS) are the main sources of gravitational waves and that, despite their similar masses, the 15.79 progenitor generated much more GW energy due to the differences in the internal structure of the two stars. By learning more about how GW signatures reflect the internal properties of stars prior to and during their death, we can move toward the ability to use a GW detection to tell us about their internal structure.