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Rob,
I still insist this is not correct presentation of facts.
Reduced radiation pressure will cause the star to collapse, not to explode.
Then, possibly some other mechanism can cause a sudden increase in internal pressure, which may tear the star apart, but this is not even suggested, and definitely not explained in this article.
"Splitting" photons in two is also not the correct description of what is going on here. It is a creation of positron-electron pairs in certain circumstances, yes, but this is not splitting, to my understanding of plain English :-)
I have quite a lot of experience in presentation of scientific fact to the public (I was involved in this on one astronomical observatory in Europe during public days) and I know very well how easy it is to confuse people.. one wrong word during explanation and next week I was hearing from other people how someone said this-and-that to his or her friend a week before... and I was horrified because I realized that I was the source of that mis-information :-)
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