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 superno vae. Although we find the overall characteristics of the supernovae ev olution largely unchanged, we do see in the supranuclear density regio n of a supernova core, the temperature and electron neutrino number de nsity increasing by about 10% and 160%, respectively, over a similar c alculation where pions are neglected. These changes increase the neutr ino 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.