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Through the explosive deaths of stars, the densest objects in the universe are
born, and a large fraction of the chemical elements synthesised. The progenitor
stars of supernovae are, however, in many aspects still poorly understood. In
particular, the fate of light massive stars that sit on a knife edge between
white dwarf and neutron star production is arguably the poorest understood of
all. Our research has shown that refined nuclear physics and multidimensional
hydrodynamic simulations are of critical importance for studying the evolution
of supernova progenitors. Furthermore, our most recent simulations suggest that
light massive stars stars may not produce white dwarfs or neutron stars at all.
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