Abstract:
The question of our origins is as much a scientific question as a philosophical one: where did we come from? Biologically, at least, we now believe the majority of atoms in our body originally come from core-collapse supernovae - the explosive deaths of massive stars, more than 10 the times the size of our sun. Yet, for over half century, our theories and models have been unable to explain how exactly these stars explode. Using the latest supercomputers and an improved understanding of atomic physics, we now present a state-of-the-art simulation of the successful, vigorous explosion of a core-collapse supernova. Our work marks recent progress within the astrophysics community to understanding the deaths of these massive stars and the birth of elements seeding the universe around us.

About the speaker:
David Vartanyan's parents immigrated from Armenia to Glendale, CA in 1991, where he was born and grew up. During his teenage years, he was heavily influenced by his father's stories of Professor Viktor Hambartsumyan (1908-1996), and decided early on to pursue Astrophysics. David received his Bachelor's degree in Astrophysics from Caltech. While in Califormia he was a member of the St. Mary's Armenian Church in Glendale, until he moved to Princeton University for his graduate studies. Here, interestingly
enough, he is attending the St. Mary's Armenian Church in Livingston, NJ. He received his Master's degree from Princeton and is now in the final year of his PhD program at Princeton.