PIONS, SUPERNOVAE, AND THE SUPRANUCLEAR MATTER DENSITY EQUATION OF STATE

We discuss the general trends that result from including pions in the supranuclear matter density equation of state we use to evolve supernovae. Although we find the overall characteristics of the supernovae evolution largely unchanged, we do see in the supranuclear density region of a supernova core, the temperature and electron neutrino number density increasing by about 10% and 160%, respectively, over a similar calculation where pions are neglected. These changes increase the neutrino luminosity and thus increase the explosion energy. The explanation for this behavior, as well as a thorough discussion of pion model we use, are the main topics of this paper.