Thoughts on core-collapse supernova theory

An emerging conclusion of theoretical supernova research is that the breaking of spherical symmetry may be the key to the elusive mechanism of explosion. Such explorations require state-of-the-art multi-dimensional numerical tools and significant computational resources. Despite the thousands of man-years and thousands of CPU-years devoted to date to studying the supernova mystery, both require further evolution. There are many computationally-challenging instabilities in the core, before, during, and after the launch of the shock, and a variety of multi-dimensional mechanisms are now being actively explored. These include the neutrino heating mechanism, the MHD jet mechanism, and an acoustic mechanism. The latter is the most controversial, and, as with all the contenders, requires detailed testing and scrutiny. In this paper, we analyze recent attempts to do so, and suggests methods to improve them.