Core-Collapse Supernovae as Supercomputing Science: a status report toward 6D simulations with exact Boltzmann neutrino transport in full general relativity

This is a status report on our endeavor to reveal the mechanism of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) by large-scale numerical simulations. Multi-dimensionality of the supernova engine, general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, energy and lepton number transport by neutrinos emitted from the forming neutron star as well as nuclear interactions there, are all believed to play crucial roles in repelling infalling matter and producing energetic explosions. These ingredients are nonlinearly coupled with one another in the dynamics of core-collapse, bounce, and shock expansion. Serious quantitative studies of CCSNe hence make extensive numerical computations mandatory. Since neutrinos are neither in thermal nor in chemical equilibrium in general, their distributions in the phase space should be computed. This is a six dimensional (6D) neutrino transport problem and quite a challenge even for those with an access to the most advanced numerical resources such as the "K computer". To tackle this problem, we have embarked on multi-front efforts. In particular we report in this paper our recent progresses in the treatments of multi-dimensional (multi-D) radiation-hydrodynamics. We are currently proceeding on two different paths to the ultimate goal; in one approach we employ an approximate but highly efficient scheme for neutrino transport and treat 3D hydrodynamics and/or general relativity rigorously; some neutrino-driven explosions will be presented and comparisons will be made between 2D and 3D models quantitatively; in the second approach, on the other hand, exact but so far Newtonian Boltzmann equations are solved in two and three spatial dimensions; we will show some demonstrative test simulations. We will also address the perspectives of exa-scale computations on the next generation supercomputers.