46 research outputs found
Hydrodynamic Processes in Massive Stars
The hydrodynamic processes operating within stellar interiors are far richer
than represented by the best stellar evolution model available. Although it is
now widely understood, through astrophysical simulation and relevant
terrestrial experiment, that many of the basic assumptions which underlie our
treatments of stellar evolution are flawed, we lack a suitable, comprehensive
replacement. This is due to a deficiency in our fundamental understanding of
the transport and mixing properties of a turbulent, reactive, magnetized
plasma; a deficiency in knowledge which stems from the richness and variety of
solutions which characterize the inherently non-linear set of governing
equations. The exponential increase in availability of computing resources,
however, is ushering in a new era of understanding complex hydrodynamic flows;
and although this field is still in its formative stages, the sophistication
already achieved is leading to a dramatic paradigm shift in how we model
astrophysical fluid dynamics. We highlight here some recent results from a
series of multi-dimensional stellar interior calculations which are part of a
program designed to improve our one-dimensional treatment of massive star
evolution and stellar evolution in general.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, IAUS 252 Conference Proceeding (Sanya) - "The
Art of Modeling Stars in the 21st Century
A new stellar mixing process operating below shell convection zones following off-center ignition
During most stages of stellar evolution the nuclear burning of lighter to
heavier elements results in a radial composition profile which is stabilizing
against buoyant acceleration, with light material residing above heavier
material. However, under some circumstances, such as off-center ignition, the
composition profile resulting from nuclear burning can be destabilizing, and
characterized by an outwardly increasing mean molecular weight. The potential
for instabilities under these circumstances, and the consequences that they may
have on stellar structural evolution, remain largely unexplored. In this paper
we study the development and evolution of instabilities associated with
unstable composition gradients in regions which are initially stable according
to linear Schwarzschild and Ledoux criteria. In particular, we explore the
mixing taking place under various conditions with multi-dimensional
hydrodynamic convection models based on stellar evolutionary calculations of
the core helium flash in a 1.25 \Msun star, the core carbon flash in a
9.3\,\Msun star, and of oxygen shell burning in a star with a mass of
23\,\Msun. The results of our simulations reveal a mixing process associated
with regions having outwardly increasing mean molecular weight that reside
below convection zones. The mixing is not due to overshooting from the
convection zone, nor is it due directly to thermohaline mixing which operates
on a timescale several orders of magnitude larger than the simulated flows.
Instead, the mixing appears to be due to the presence of a wave field induced
in the stable layers residing beneath the convection zone which enhances the
mixing rate by many orders of magnitude and allows a thermohaline type mixing
process to operate on a dynamical, rather than thermal, timescale. We discuss
our results in terms of related laboratory phenomena and associated theoretical
developments.Comment: accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal, 9 pages, 8 figure
Active Carbon and Oxygen Shell Burning Hydrodynamics
We have simulated 2.5 s of the late evolution of a star with full hydrodynamic behavior. We present the first simulations
of a multiple-shell burning epoch, including the concurrent evolution and
interaction of an oxygen and carbon burning shell. In addition, we have evolved
a 3D model of the oxygen burning shell to sufficiently long times (300 s) to
begin to assess the adequacy of the 2D approximation. We summarize striking new
results: (1) strong interactions occur between active carbon and oxygen burning
shells, (2) hydrodynamic wave motions in nonconvective regions, generated at
the convective-radiative boundaries, are energetically important in both 2D and
3D with important consequences for compositional mixing, and (3) a spectrum of
mixed p- and g-modes are unambiguously identified with corresponding adiabatic
waves in these computational domains. We find that 2D convective motions are
exaggerated relative to 3D because of vortex instability in 3D. We discuss the
implications for supernova progenitor evolution and symmetry breaking in core
collapse.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures in emulateapj format. Accepted for publication in
ApJ Letters. High resolution figure version available at
http://spinach.as.arizona.ed
Young stars and dust in AFGL437: NICMOS/HST polarimetric imaging of an outflow source
We present near infrared broad band and polarimetric images of the compact
star forming cluster AFGL437 obtained with the NICMOS instrument aboard HST.
Our high resolution images reveal a well collimated bipolar reflection
nebulosity in the cluster and allow us to identify WK34 as the illuminating
source. The scattered light in the bipolar nebulosity centered on this source
is very highly polarized (up to 79%). Such high levels of polarization implies
a distribution of dust grains lacking large grains, contrary to the usual dust
models of dark clouds. We discuss the geometry of the dust distribution giving
rise to the bipolar reflection nebulosity and make mass estimates for the
underlying scattering material. We find that the most likely inclination of the
bipolar nebulosity, south lobe inclined towards Earth, is consistent with the
inclination of the large scale CO molecular outflow associated with the
cluster, strengthening the identification of WK34 as the source powering it.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figues. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
The Impact of Hydrodynamic Mixing on Supernova Progenitors
Recent multidimensional hydrodynamic simulations have demonstrated the
importance of hydrodynamic motions in the convective boundary and radiative
regions of stars to transport of energy, momentum, and composition. The impact
of these processes increases with stellar mass. Stellar models which
approximate this physics have been tested on several classes of observational
problems. In this paper we examine the implications of the improved treatment
on supernova progenitors. The improved models predict substantially different
interior structures. We present pre-supernova conditions and simple explosion
calculations from stellar models with and without the improved mixing treatment
at 23 solar masses. The results differ substantially.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal Letter
A Two-Dimensional MagnetoHydrodynamics Scheme for General Unstructured Grids
We report a new finite-difference scheme for two-dimensional
magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations, with and without rotation, in
unstructured grids with quadrilateral cells. The new scheme is implemented
within the code VULCAN/2D, which already includes radiation-hydrodynamics in
various approximations and can be used with arbitrarily moving meshes (ALE).
The MHD scheme, which consists of cell-centered magnetic field variables,
preserves the nodal finite difference representation of div(\bB) by
construction, and therefore any initially divergence-free field remains
divergence-free through the simulation. In this paper, we describe the new
scheme in detail and present comparisons of VULCAN/2D results with those of the
code ZEUS/2D for several one-dimensional and two-dimensional test problems. The
code now enables two-dimensional simulations of the collapse and explosion of
the rotating, magnetic cores of massive stars. Moreover, it can be used to
simulate the very wide variety of astrophysical problems for which multi-D
radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) is relevant.Comment: 22 pages, including 11 figures; Accepted to the Astrophysical
Journal. Higher resolution figures available at
http://zenith.as.arizona.edu/~burrows/mhd-code
Asymmetry and the Nucleosynthetic Signature of Nearly Edge-Lit Detonation in White Dwarf Cores
Most of the leading explosion scenarios for Type Ia supernovae involve the
nuclear incineration of a white dwarf star through a detonation wave. Several
scenarios have been proposed as to how this detonation may actually occur, but
the exact mechanism and environment in which it takes place remain unknown. We
explore the effects of an off-center initiated detonation on the spatial
distribution of the nucleosynthetic yield products in a toy model -- a
pre-expanded near Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf. We find that a single-point
near edge-lit detonation results in asymmetries in the density and thermal
profiles, notably the expansion timescale, throughout the supernova ejecta. We
demonstrate that this asymmetry of the thermodynamic trajectories should be
common to off-center detonations where a small amount of the star is burned
prior to detonation. The sensitivity of the yields on the expansion timescale
results in an asymmetric distribution of the elements synthesized as reaction
products. We tabulate the shift in the center of mass of the various elements
produced in our model supernova and find an odd-even pattern for elements past
silicon. Our calculations show that off-center single-point detonations in
carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are marked by significant composition asymmetries in
their remnants which bear potentially observable signatures in both velocity
and coordinate space, including an elemental nickel mass fraction which varies
by a factor of two to three from one side of the remnant to the other.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Initiation of the detonation in the gravitationally confined detonation model of Type Ia supernovae
We study the initiation of the detonation in the gravitationally confined
detonation (GCD) model of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Initiation of the
detonation occurs spontaneously in a region where the length scale of the
temperature gradient extending from a flow (in which carbon burning is already
occurring) into unburned fuel is commensurate to the range of critical length
scales which have been derived from 1D simulations that resolve the initiation
of a detonation. By increasing the maximum resolution in a truncated cone that
encompasses this region, beginning somewhat before initiation of the detonation
occurs, we successfully simulate in situ the first gradient-initiated
detonation in a whole-star simulation. The detonation emerges when a
compression wave overruns a pocket of fuel situated in a Kelvin-Helmholtz cusp
at the leading edge of the inwardly directed jet of burning carbon. The
compression wave pre-conditions the temperature in the fuel in such a way that
the Zel'dovich gradient mechanism can operate and a detonation ensues. We
explore the dependence of the length scale of the temperature gradient on
spatial resolution and discuss the implications for the robustness of this
detonation mechanism. We find that the time and the location at which
initiation of the detonation occurs varies with resolution. In particular,
initiation of a detonation had not yet occurred in our highest resolution
simulation by the time we ended the simulation because of the computational
demand it required. We suggest that the turbulent shear layer surrounding the
inwardly directed jet provides the most favorable physical conditions, and
therefore the most likely location, for initiation of a detonation in the GCD
model.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, accepted to Ap