65 research outputs found

    A New Twist In the Evolution of Low-Mass Stars

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    We show that the evolutionary track of a low-mass red giant should make an extended zigzag on the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram just after the bump luminosity, if fast internal rotation and enhanced extra mixing in the radiative zone bring the temperature gradient close to the adiabatic one. This can explain both the location and peculiar surface chemical composition of Li-rich K giants studied by Kumar, Reddy, & Lambert (2011). We also discuss a striking resemblance between the photometric and composition peculiarities of these stars and giant components of RS CVn binaries. We demonstrate that the observationally constrained values of the temperature gradient in the Li-rich K giants agree with the required rate of extra mixing only if the turbulence which is believed to be responsible for this extra mixing is highly anisotropic, with its associated transport coefficients in the horizontal direction strongly dominating over those in the vertical direction.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter

    MESA and NuGrid Simulations of Classical Nova Outbursts and Nucleosynthesis

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    Classical novae are the results of surface thermonuclear explosions of hydrogen accreted by white dwarfs (WDs) from their low-mass main-sequence or red-giant binary companions. Chemical composition analysis of their ejecta shows that nova outbursts occur on both carbon-oxygen (CO) and more massive oxygen-neon (ONe) WDs, and that there is cross-boundary mixing between the accreted envelope and underlying WD. We demonstrate that the state-of-the-art stellar evolution code MESA and post-processing nucleosynthesis tools of NuGrid can successfully be used for modeling of CO and ONe nova outbursts and nucleosynthesis. The convective boundary mixing (CBM) in our 1D numerical simulations is implemented using a diffusion coefficient that is exponentially decreasing with a distance below the bottom of the convective envelope. We show that this prescription produces maximum temperature evolution profiles and nucleosynthesis yields in good agreement with those obtained using the commonly adopted 1D nova model in which the CBM is mimicked by assuming that the accreted envelope has been pre-mixed with WD's material. In a previous paper, we have found that 3He can be produced in situ in solar-composition envelopes accreted with slow rates (dM/dt < 1e-10 M_sun/yr) by cold (T_WD < 1d7 K) CO WDs, and that convection is triggered by 3He burning before the nova outburst in this case. Here, we confirm this result for ONe novae. Additionally, we find that the interplay between the 3He production and destruction in the solar-composition envelope accreted with an intermediate rate, e.g. dM/dt = 1e-10 M_sun/yr, by the 1.15 M_sun ONe WD with a relatively high initial central temperature, e.g. T_WD = 15e6 K, leads to the formation of a thick radiative buffer zone that separates the bottom of the convective envelope from the WD surface.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, STELLA NOVAE: FUTURE AND PAST DECADES Conference Proceedings, Submitted to ASP Conference Serie
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