Abstract John Westernacher-Schneider

Abstract: Turbulent Gravitational Collapse

When a black hole forms during gravitational collapse of a massive star, there is an enormous transfer of potential energy to kinetic energy. If the collapse is spherical and laminar, the black hole absorbs the entire star. But can stellar turbulence tap into this energy and alter the total mass absorbed by the black hole? We present an ongoing effort to answer the question of whether turbulent kinetic energy amplifies or decays during the process of gravitational collapse -- without models.