Scientific Computing Seminar

Date:

Friday, October 14, 2005

Time:

1:00pm-2:00pm

Location:

50A-5132

Seminar Speaker:

Jennifer Hoffman
Department of Astronomy
UC Berkeley
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~jhoffman/

Title:

Exploring the Geometry of the Brightest Supernovae

Abstract:

In the hierarchy of supernova explosions, the most luminous events belong to the subclass known as Type IIn. Spectra of these objects consistently reveal intense interaction between the supernova ejecta and dense circumstellar matter configurations; the prodigious optical output of the brightest Type IIn supernovae is powered by this interaction rather than by a process intrinsic to the explosion mechanism. In polarized light, Type IIn's show intriguing features such as multiple polarization axes and highly polarized emission lines offset from the lines in the flux spectrum. My research investigates ways in which such polarization spectra can be produced at early times in a supernova's evolution by modeling the transfer of supernova spectra through circumstellar shells with various geometrical configurations. The approach combines 3-D spectrum synthesis and Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes. I will present preliminary model results and compare them with high-quality spectropolarimetric observations of Type IIn supernovae.

Sponsor of Seminar:

Peter Nugent

Scientific Computing

Contact Esmond G. Ng EGNg@lbl.gov