A 3D radiative transfer framework: V. Homologous Flows

Observations and theoretical calculations have shown the importance of non-spherically symmetric structures in supernovae. Thus, the interpretation of observed supernova spectra requires the ability to solve the transfer equation in 3-D moving atmospheres. We present an implementation of the solution of the radiative transfer equation in 3-D homologously expanding atmospheres in spherical coordinates. The implementation is exact to all orders in v/c. We use a new affine method that makes use of the fact that photons travel on straight lines. We compare our results in 3-D for spherically symmetric test problems with high velocity fields and find excellent agreement. Our well-tested 1-D results are based on methods where the momentum directions vary along the characteristic (co-moving momentum directions). Thus, we are able to verify both the analytic framework and its numerical implementation. Additionally, we have been able to test the parallelization over characteristics. Using 512^2 momentum angles we ran the code on 16,384 Opteron processors and achieved excellent scaling. It is now possible to calculate synthetic spectra from realistic 3D hydro simulations. This should open an era of progress in hydro modeling, similar to that that occurred in the 1980s when 1-D models were confronted with synthetic spectra.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics, in pres

Non-LTE treatment of molecules in the photospheres of cool stars

We present a technique to treat systems with very many levels, like molecules, in non-LTE. This method is based on a superlevel formalism coupled with rate operator splitting. Superlevels consist of many individual levels that are assumed to be in LTE relative to each other. The usage of superlevels reduces the dimensionality of the rate equations dramatically and, thereby, makes the problem computationally more easily treatable. Our superlevel formalism retains maximum accuracy by using direct opacity sampling (dOS) when calculating the radiative transitions and the opacities. We developed this method in order to treat molecules in cool dwarf model calculations in non-LTE. Cool dwarfs have low electron densities and a radiation field that is far from a black body radiation field, both properties may invalidate the conditions for the common LTE approximation. Therefore, the most important opacity sources, the molecules, need to be treated in non-LTE. As a case study we applied our method to carbon monoxide. We find that our method gives accurate results since the conditions for the superlevel method are very well met for molecules. Due to very high collisional cross sections with hydrogen, and the high densities of H_2 the population of CO itself shows no significant deviation from LTE.Comment: AASTeX v50, 35 pages including 12 figures, accepted by Ap

Parallel Implementation of the PHOENIX Generalized Stellar Atmosphere Program

We describe the parallel implementation of our generalized stellar atmosphere and NLTE radiative transfer computer program PHOENIX. We discuss the parallel algorithms we have developed for radiative transfer, spectral line opacity, and NLTE opacity and rate calculations. Our implementation uses a MIMD design based on a relatively small number of MPI library calls. We report the results of test calculations on a number of different parallel computers and discuss the results of scalability tests.Comment: To appear in ApJ, 1997, vol 483. LaTeX, 34 pages, 3 Figures, uses AASTeX macros and styles natbib.sty, and psfig.st

The color signature of the transit of HD 209458: Discrepancies between stellar atmospheric models and observations

Exoplanetary transits produce a double-horned color signature that is distinct from both binaries and blends and can thus be used to separate exoplanets from false positives in transit searches. Color photometry with precision sufficient to detect this signal in transits of HD 209458 is available in the literature. Analysis of these observations reveals that, while the signature does exhibit the expected shape, it is significantly stronger than PHOENIX atmospheric models predict.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted to A&

Phase-Dependent Properties of Extrasolar Planet Atmospheres

Recently the Spitzer Space Telescope observed the transiting extrasolar planets, TrES-1 and HD209458b. These observations have provided the first estimates of the day side thermal flux from two extrasolar planets orbiting Sun-like stars. In this paper, synthetic spectra from atmospheric models are compared to these observations. The day-night temperature difference is explored and phase-dependent flux densities are predicted for both planets. For HD209458b and TrES-1, models with significant day-to-night energy redistribution are required to reproduce the observations. However, the observational error bars are large and a range of models remains viable.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The NextGen Model Atmosphere grid: II. Spherically symmetric model atmospheres for giant stars with effective temperatures between 3000 and 6800~K

We present the extension of our NextGen model atmosphere grid to the regime of giant stars. The input physics of the models presented here is nearly identical to the NextGen dwarf atmosphere models, however spherical geometry is used self-consistently in the model calculations (including the radiative transfer). We re-visit the discussion of the effects of spherical geometry on the structure of the atmospheres and the emitted spectra and discuss the results of NLTE calculations for a few selected models.Comment: ApJ, in press (November 1999), 13 pages, also available at http://dilbert.physast.uga.edu/~yeti/PAPERS and at ftp://calvin.physast.uga.edu/pub/preprints/NG-giants.ps.g

Solid-Solid Phase Transformations and Their Kinetics in Ti–Al–Nb Alloys

The application of light-weight intermetallic materials to address the growing interest and necessity for reduction of CO2 emissions and environmental concerns has led to intensive research into TiAl-based alloy systems. However, the knowledge about phase relations and transformations is still very incomplete. Therefore, the results presented here from systematic thermal analyses of phase transformations in 12 ternary Ti-Al-Nb alloys and one binary Ti-Al measured with 4–5 different heating rates (0.8 to 10 °C/min) give insights in the kinetics of the second-order type reaction of ordered (βTi)o to disordered (βTi) as well as the three first-order type transformations from Ti3Al to (αTi), ωo (Ti4NbAl3) to (βTi)o, and O (Ti2NbAl) to (βTi)o. The sometimes-strong heating rate dependence of the transformation temperatures is found to vary systematically in dependence on the complexity of the transformations. The dependence on heating rate is nonlinear in all cases and can be well described by a model for solid-solid phase transformations reported in the literature, which allows the determination of the equilibrium transformation temperatures