GRAVITATIONAL FIELD SHIELDING AND SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS

A new mechanism for supernova explosions called gravitational field shielding is proposed, in accord with a five-dimensional fully covariant Kaluza-Klein theory with a scalar field that unifies the four-dimensional Einsteinian general relativity and Maxwellian electromagnetic theory. It is shown that a dense compact collapsing core of a star will suddenly turn off or completely shield its gravitational field when the core collapses to a critical density, which is inversely proportional to the square of mass of the core. As the core suddenly turns off its gravity, the extremely large pressure immediately stops the core collapse and pushes the mantle material of supernova moving outward. The work done by the pressure in the expansion can be the order of energy released in a supernova explosion. The gravity will resume and stop the core from a further expansion when the core density becomes less than the critical density. Therefore, the gravitational field shielding leads a supernova to impulsively explode and form a compact object such as a neutron star as a remnant. It works such that a compressed spring will shoot the oscillator out when the compressed force is suddenly removed.