3D hydrodynamical CO5BOLD model atmospheres of red giant stars: I. Atmospheric structure of a giant located near the RGB tip

We investigate the character and role of convection in the atmosphere of a prototypical red giant located close to the red giant branch (RGB) tip with atmospheric parameters, Teff=3660K, log(g)=1.0, [M/H]=0.0. Differential analysis of the atmospheric structures is performed using the 3D hydrodynamical and 1D classical atmosphere models calculated with the CO5BOLD and LHD codes, respectively. All models share identical atmospheric parameters, elemental composition, opacities and equation-of-state. We find that the atmosphere of this particular red giant consists of two rather distinct regions: the lower atmosphere dominated by convective motions and the upper atmosphere dominated by wave activity. Convective motions form a prominent granulation pattern with an intensity contrast (~18%) which is larger than in the solar models (~15%). The upper atmosphere is frequently traversed by fast shock waves, with vertical and horizontal velocities of up to Mach ~2.5 and ~6.0, respectively. The typical diameter of the granules amounts to ~5Gm which translates into ~400 granules covering the whole stellar surface. The turbulent pressure in the giant model contributes up to ~35% to the total (i.e., gas plus turbulent) pressure which shows that it cannot be neglected in stellar atmosphere and evolutionary modeling. However, there exists no combination of the mixing-length parameter and turbulent pressure that would allow to satisfactorily reproduce the 3D temperature-pressure profile with 1D atmosphere models based on a standard formulation of mixing-length theory.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Convection and observable properties of late-type giants

We show that contrary to what is expected from 1D stationary model atmospheres, 3D hydrodynamical modeling predicts a considerable influence of convection on the spectral properties of late-type giants. This is due to the fact that convection overshoots into the formally stable outer atmospheric layers producing a notable granulation pattern in the 3D hydrodynamical models, which has a direct influence on the observable spectra and colors. Within the framework of standard 1D model atmospheres the average thermal stratification of the 3D hydro model can not be reproduced with any reasonable choice of the mixing length parameter and formulation of the turbulent pressure. The differences in individual photometric colors -- in terms of 3D versus 1D -- reach up to ~0.2 mag, or \Delta Teff~70K. We discuss the impact of full 3D hydrodynamical models on the interpretation of observable properties of late-type giants, briefly mentioning problems and challenges which need to be solved for bringing these models to a routine use within the astronomical community in 5-10 years from now.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the IAU Symposium 232 "The Scientific Requirements for Extremely Large Telescopes", eds. P. Whitelock, B. Leibundgut, and M. Dennefel

Hydrodynamical model atmospheres and 3D spectral synthesis

We discuss three issues in the context of three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamical model atmospheres for late-type stars, related to spectral line shifts, radiative transfer in metal-poor 3D models, and the solar oxygen abundance. We include a brief overview about the model construction, taking the radiation-hydrodynamics code CO5BOLD (COnservative COde for the COmputation of COmpressible COnvection in a BOx of L Dimensions with L=2,3) and the related spectral synthesis package Linfor3D as examples.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the ESO/Lisbon/Aveiro Workshop "Precision Spectroscopy in Astrophysics", eds. L. Pasquini, M. Romaniello, N.C. Santos, and A. Correi

Multifractality and Conformal Invariance at 2D Metal-Insulator Transition in the Spin-Orbit Symmetry Class

We study the multifractality (MF) of critical wave functions at boundaries and corners at the metal-insulator transition (MIT) for noninteracting electrons in the two-dimensional (2D) spin-orbit (symplectic) universality class. We find that the MF exponents near a boundary are different from those in the bulk. The exponents at a corner are found to be directly related to those at a straight boundary through a relation arising from conformal invariance. This provides direct numerical evidence for conformal invariance at the 2D spin-orbit MIT. The presence of boundaries modifies the MF of the whole sample even in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A three-dimensional hydrodynamical line profile analysis of iron lines and barium isotopes in HD140283

Heavy-elements, i.e. those beyond the iron peak, mostly form via two neutron capture processes: the s- and r-process. Metal-poor stars should contain fewer isotopes that form via the s-process, according to currently accepted theory. It has been shown in several investigations that theory and observation do not agree well, raising questions on the validity of either the methodology or the theory. We analyse the metal-poor star HD140283, for which we have a high quality spectrum. We test whether a 3D LTE stellar atmosphere and spectrum synthesis code permits a more reliable analysis of the iron abundance and barium isotope ratio than a 1D LTE analysis. Using 3D model atmospheres, we examine 91 iron lines of varying strength and formation depth. This provides us with the star's rotational speed. With this, we model the barium isotope ratio by exploiting the hyperfine structure of the singly ionised 4554 resonance line, and study the impact of the uncertainties in the stellar parameters. HD140283's vsini = 1.65 +/- 0.05 km/s. Barium isotopes under the 3D paradigm show a dominant r-process signature as 77 +/- 6 +/- 17% of barium isotopes form via the r-process, where errors represent the assigned random and systematic errors, respectively. We find that 3D LTE fits reproduce iron line profiles better than those in 1D, but do not provide a unique abundance (within the uncertainties). However, we demonstrate that the isotopic ratio is robust against this shortcoming. Our barium isotope result agrees well with currently accepted theory regarding the formation of the heavy-elements during the early Galaxy. The improved fit to the asymmetric iron line profiles suggests that the current state of 3D LTE modelling provides excellent simulations of fluid flows. However, the abundances they provide are not yet self-consistent. This may improve with NLTE considerations and higher resolution models.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in A&