Three-dimensional extrapolation of axisymmetric progenitor-perturbation results

Determine whether the finding of Chen et al. (2026) that progenitor perturbations do not significantly affect core-collapse supernova outcomes in axisymmetric simulations can be directly extrapolated to fully three-dimensional core-collapse supernova models.

Background

The paper compares its fully three-dimensional simulations with the axisymmetric results of Chen et al. (2026), who reported that progenitor perturbations had little influence on the outcome of their models and that turbulence was instead primarily driven by nuclear burning during collapse, the standing accretion shock instability, and large-scale shock deformations.

Because turbulent energy cascades toward smaller scales in three dimensions but toward larger scales in two dimensions, axisymmetric simulations can develop large-scale fluid patterns and are generally more explodable than their three-dimensional counterparts. The authors therefore identify the applicability of the axisymmetric conclusions to fully three-dimensional simulations as unresolved.