Eruption of supernova shock waves

The initial burst of radiation from a supernova occurs as the shock wave which was generated by the explosion in the stellar core propagates into the photosphere. It is shown that the radiative hydrodynamics in the photospheric region should not be very sensitive to whether ordinary diffusion or flux-limited diffusion is used. Examination of the published numerical studies indicates that the radiation from the erupting supernova shock wave accelerates the matter in front of the shock so that the velocity discontinuity vanishes; a gas-viscous shock does not form, and there is no intense burst of hard X-rays above several keV. The published estimates of the softer X-ray emission from supernova shock waves are unaffected by the considerations presented here