1,284 research outputs found
The Supernova Channel of Super-AGB Stars
We study the late evolution of solar metallicity stars in the transition
region between white dwarf formation and core collapse. This includes the
super-asymptotic giant branch (super-AGB, SAGB) stars, which have massive
enough cores to ignite carbon burning and form an oxygen-neon (ONe) core. The
most massive SAGB stars have cores that may grow to the Chandrasekhar mass
because of continued shell-burning. Their cores collapse, triggering a so
called electron capture supernovae (ECSN). From stellar evolution models we
find that the initial mass range for SAGB evolution is 7.5 ... 9.25\msun. We
perform calculations with three different stellar evolution codes to
investigate the sensitivity of this mass range to some of the uncertainties in
current stellar models. The mass range significantly depends on the treatment
of semiconvective mixing and convective overshooting. To consider the effect of
a large number of thermal pulses, as expected in SAGB stars, we construct
synthetic SAGB models that include a semi-analytical treatment of dredge-up,
hot-bottom burning, and thermal pulse properties. This synthetic model enables
us to compute the evolution of the main properties of SAGB stars from the onset
of thermal pulses until the core reaches the Chandrasekhar mass or is uncovered
by the stellar wind. Thereby, we determine the stellar initial mass ranges that
produce ONe-white dwarfs and electron-capture supernovae. The latter is found
to be 9.0 ... 9.25\msun for our fiducial model, implying that electron-capture
supernovae would constitute about 4% of all supernovae in the local universe.
Our synthetic approach allows us to explore the uncertainty of this number
imposed by uncertainties in the third dredge-up efficiency and ABG mass loss
rate. We find for ECSNe a upper limit of ~20% of all supernovae (abridged).Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures, submitted to ApJ, uses emulateap
Presupernova Evolution of Rotating Massive Stars and the Rotation Rate of Pulsars
Rotation in massive stars has been studied on the main sequence and during
helium burning for decades, but only recently have realistic numerical
simulations followed the transport of angular momentum that occurs during more
advanced stages of evolution. The results affect such interesting issues as
whether rotation is important to the explosion mechanism, whether supernovae
are strong sources of gravitational radiation, the star's nucleosynthesis, and
the initial rotation rate of neutron stars and black holes. We find that when
only hydrodynamic instabilities (shear, Eddington-Sweet, etc.) are included in
the calculation, one obtains neutron stars spinning at close to critical
rotation at their surface -- or even formally in excess of critical. When
recent estimates of magnetic torques (Spruit 2002) are added, however, the
evolved cores spin about an order of magnitude slower. This is still more
angular momentum than observed in young pulsars, but too slow for the collapsar
model for gamma-ray bursts.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Proc. IAU 215 "Stellar Rotation
Pre-suprenova evolution of rotating massive stars
The Geneva evolutionary code has been modified to study the advanced stages
(Ne, O, Si burnings) of rotating massive stars. Here we present the results of
four 20 solar mass stars at solar metallicity with initial rotational
velocities of 0, 100, 200 and 300 km/s in order to show the crucial role of
rotation in stellar evolution. As already known, rotation increases mass loss
and core masses (Meynet and Maeder 2000). A fast rotating 20 solar mass star
has the same central evolution as a non-rotating 26 solar mass star. Rotation
also increases strongly net total metal yields. Furthermore, rotation changes
the SN type so that more SNIb are predicted (see Meynet and Maeder 2003 and N.
Prantzos and S. Boissier 2003). Finally, SN1987A-like supernovae progenitor
colour can be explained in a single rotating star scenario.Comment: To appear in proceedings of IAU Colloquium 192, "Supernovae (10 years
of 1993J)", Valencia, Spain 22-26 April 2003, eds. J.M. Marcaide, K.W.
Weiler, 5 pages, 8 figure
Code dependencies of pre-supernova evolution and nucleosynthesis in massive stars: Evolution to the end of core helium burning
Massive stars are key sources of radiative, kinetic and chemical feedback in the Universe. Grids of massive star models computed by different groups each using their own codes, input physics choices and numerical approximations, however, lead to inconsistent results for the same stars. We use three of these 1D codes – genec, kepler and mesa – to compute non-rotating stellar models of 15, 20 and 25 M⊙ and compare their nucleosynthesis. We follow the evolution from the main sequence until the end of core helium burning. The genec and kepler models hold physics assumptions used in large grids of published models. The mesa code was set up to use convective core overshooting such that the CO core masses are consistent with those obtained by genec. For all models, full nucleosynthesis is computed using the NuGrid post-processing tool mppnp. We find that the surface abundances predicted by the models are in reasonable agreement. In the helium core, the standard deviation of the elemental overproduction factors for Fe to Mo is less than 30 per cent – smaller than the impact of the present nuclear physics uncertainties. For our three initial masses, the three stellar evolution codes yield consistent results. Differences in key properties of the models, e.g. helium and CO core masses and the time spent as a red supergiant, are traced back to the treatment of convection and, to a lesser extent, mass loss. The mixing processes in stars remain the key uncertainty in stellar modelling. Better constrained prescriptions are thus necessary to improve the predictive power of stellar evolution models
Nucleosynthesis in Massive Stars With Improved Nuclear and Stellar Physics
We present the first calculations to follow the evolution of all stable
nuclei and their radioactive progenitors in stellar models computed from the
onset of central hydrogen burning through explosion as Type II supernovae.
Calculations are performed for Pop I stars of 15, 19, 20, 21, and 25 M_sun
using the most recently available experimental and theoretical nuclear data,
revised opacity tables, neutrino losses, and weak interaction rates, and taking
into account mass loss due to stellar winds. A novel ``adaptive'' reaction
network is employed with a variable number of nuclei (adjusted each time step)
ranging from about 700 on the main sequence to more than 2200 during the
explosion. The network includes, at any given time, all relevant isotopes from
hydrogen through polonium (Z=84). Even the limited grid of stellar masses
studied suggests that overall good agreement can be achieved with the solar
abundances of nuclei between 16O and 90Zr. Interesting discrepancies are seen
in the 20 M_sun model and, so far, only in that model, that are a consequence
of the merging of the oxygen, neon, and carbon shells about a day prior to core
collapse. We find that, in some stars, most of the ``p-process'' nuclei can be
produced in the convective oxygen burning shell moments prior to collapse; in
others, they are made only in the explosion. Serious deficiencies still exist
in all cases for the p-process isotopes of Ru and Mo.Comment: 53 pages, 17 color figures (3 as separate GIF images), slightly
extended discussion and references, accepted by Ap
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