Electromagnetic Probes of the Supernova Engine
Abstract
Explosions from stellar collapse are important in nearly all aspects of astronomy: formation of compact remnants (including the potential seeds of supermassive black holes), the production of compact binaries the produce X-ray binaries and radio pulsars, the origin of many of the heavy elements (a critical aspect of galactic chemical evolution), and as standard candles to probe the early universe (including the nature of star formation). Because these explosions occur in extreme conditions, if we can understand them, they can be used to probe fundamental physics: matter at extreme densities (exceeding nuclear densities, quark formation), neutrino physics (including neutrino oscillations) and, in black-hole forming systems, the nature of relativity. Gravitational waves and neutrinos provide the most direct probe of stellar collapse, but these diagnostics require nearby events. Electromagnetic probes, from shock breakout to observations of supernova remnants, can be much more common and provide complementary diagnostics of the explosive engines behind stellar collapse. In this review, we review these electromagnetic diagnostics, the physics behind them and the theory and modeling work we require to take advantage of these probes.
Related
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- A steadily declining dispersion measure for the repeating fast radio burst FRB 20220529A: Evidence for an FRB engine embedded in an expanding supernova remnant
- EP250827b/SN 2025wkm: An X-Ray Flash-supernova Powered by a Central Engine and Circumstellar Interaction
- Relative amplitudes of strongly lensed LISA binaries as probes of galaxy-lens potentials
BibTeX
@misc{fryer2026electromagnetic,
title = {{Electromagnetic Probes of the Supernova Engine}},
author = {Chris L. Fryer},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.12308},
eprint = {2609.12308},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12308},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Electromagnetic Probes of the Supernova Engine
AU - Chris L. Fryer
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.12308
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12308
AB - Explosions from stellar collapse are important in nearly all aspects of astronomy: formation of compact remnants (including the potential seeds of supermassive black holes), the production of compact binaries the produce X-ray binaries and radio pulsars, the origin of many of the heavy elements (a critical aspect of galactic chemical evolution), and as standard candles to probe the early universe (including the nature of star formation). Because these explosions occur in extreme conditions, if we can understand them, they can be used to probe fundamental physics: matter at extreme densities (exceeding nuclear densities, quark formation), neutrino physics (including neutrino oscillations) and, in black-hole forming systems, the nature of relativity. Gravitational waves and neutrinos provide the most direct probe of stellar collapse, but these diagnostics require nearby events. Electromagnetic probes, from shock breakout to observations of supernova remnants, can be much more common and provide complementary diagnostics of the explosive engines behind stellar collapse. In this review, we review these electromagnetic diagnostics, the physics behind them and the theory and modeling work we require to take advantage of these probes.
ER -