  The multidimensional character of the hydrodynamics in core-collapse
supernova (CCSN) cores is a key facilitator of explosions. Unfortunately, much
of this work has necessarily been performed assuming axisymmetry and it remains
unclear whether or not this compromises those results. In this work, we present
analyses of simplified two- and three-dimensional CCSN models with the goal of
comparing the multidimensional hydrodynamics in setups that differ only in
dimension. Not surprisingly, we find many differences between 2D and 3D models.
While some differences are subtle and perhaps not crucial to understanding the
explosion mechanism, others are quite dramatic and make interpreting 2D CCSN
models problematic. In particular, we find that imposing axisymmetry
artificially produces excess power at the largest spatial scales, power that
has been deemed critical in the success of previous explosion models and has
been attributed solely to the standing accretion shock instability.
Nevertheless, our 3D models, which have an order of magnitude less power on
large scales compared to 2D models, explode earlier. Since we see explosions
earlier in 3D than in 2D, the vigorous sloshing associated with the large scale
power in 2D models is either not critical in any dimension or the explosion
mechanism operates differently in 2D and 3D. Possibly related to the earlier
explosions in 3D, we find that about 25% of the accreted material spends more
time in the gain region in 3D than in 2D, being exposed to more integrated
heating and reaching higher peak entropies, an effect we associate with the
differing characters of turbulence in 2D and 3D. Finally, we discuss a simple
model for the runaway growth of buoyant bubbles that is able to quantitatively
account for the growth of the shock radius and predicts a critical luminosity
relation.
