The SuperN-project: Current advances in understanding core collapse supernovae

We give an overview of the problems and the current status of our two-dimensional (core collapse) supernova modelling, and present the system of equations and the algorithm for its solution that are employed in our code, and report on our continuing efforts to increase the computational efficiency of our supernova code VERTEX, which now has full MPI functionality and can be run efficiently on several nodes of the NEC SX-8. We also discuss selected results that document the progress achieved by recent simulations that are performed on the NEC SX-8 at the HLRS Stuttgart. In particular, we have studied the influence of the nuclear equation of state on the neutrino and gravitational wave signals from collapsing stellar cores and on the explosion mechanism. Another focus of our work was on the observable signatures of a subclass of supernovae originating from low-mass progenitors below about ten solar masses.