8,067 research outputs found
Lithium-7 surface abundance in pre-MS stars. Testing theory against clusters and binary systems
The disagreement between theoretical predictions and observations for surface
lithium abundance in stars is a long-standing problem, which indicates that the
adopted physical treatment is still lacking in some points. However, thanks to
the recent improvements in both models and observations, it is interesting to
analyse the situation to evaluate present uncertainties. We present a
consistent and quantitative analysis of the theoretical uncertainties affecting
surface lithium abundance in the current generation of models. By means of an
up-to-date and well tested evolutionary code, FRANEC, theoretical errors on
surface 7Li abundance predictions, during the pre-main sequence (pre-MS) and
main sequence (MS) phases, are discussed in detail. Then, the predicted surface
7Li abundance was tested against observational data for five open clusters,
namely Ic 2602, \alpha Per, Blanco1, Pleiades, and Ngc 2516, and for four
detached double-lined eclipsing binary systems. Stellar models for the
aforementioned clusters were computed by adopting suitable chemical
composition, age, and mixing length parameter for MS stars determined from the
analysis of the colour-magnitude diagram of each cluster. We restricted our
analysis to young clusters, to avoid additional uncertainty sources such as
diffusion and/or radiative levitation efficiency. We confirm the disagreement,
within present uncertainties, between theoretical predictions and 7Li
observations for standard models. However, we notice that a satisfactory
agreement with observations for 7Li abundance in both young open clusters and
binary systems can be achieved if a lower convection efficiency is adopted
during the pre-MS phase with respect to the MS one.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Dust photophoretic transport around a T Tauri star: Implications for comets composition
There is a growing body of evidences for the presence of crystalline material
in comets. These crystals are believed to have been annealed in the inner part
of the proto-solar nebula, while comets should have been formed in the outer
regions. Several transport processes have been proposed to reconcile these two
facts; among them a migration driven by photophoresis. The primarily goal of
this work is to assess whether disk irradiation by a Pre-Main Sequence star
would influence the photophoretic transport. To do so, we have implemented an
evolving 1+1D model of an accretion disk, including advanced numerical
techniques, undergoing a time-dependent irradiation, consistent with the
evolution of the proto-Sun along the Pre-Main Sequence. The photophoresis is
described using a formalism introduced in several previous works. Adopting the
opacity prescription used in these former studies, we find that the disk
irradiation enhances the photophoretic transport: the assumption of a disk
central hole of several astronomical units in radius is no longer strictly
required, whereas the need for an ad hoc introduction of photoevaporation is
reduced. However, we show that a residual trail of small particles could
annihilate the photophoretic driven transport via their effect on the opacity.
We have also confirmed that the thermal conductivity of transported aggregates
is a crucial parameter which could limit or even suppress the photophoretic
migration and generate several segregation effects
Theoretical uncertainties on the radius of low- and very-low mass stars
We performed an analysis of the main theoretical uncertainties that affect
the radius of low- and very-low mass-stars predicted by current stellar models.
We focused on stars in the mass range 0.1-1Msun, on both the zero-age
main-sequence (ZAMS) and on 1, 2 and 5 Gyr isochrones. First, we quantified the
impact on the radius of the uncertainty of several quantities, namely the
equation of state, radiative opacity, atmospheric models, convection efficiency
and initial chemical composition. Then, we computed the cumulative radius error
stripe obtained by adding the radius variation due to all the analysed
quantities. As a general trend, the radius uncertainty increases with the
stellar mass. For ZAMS structures the cumulative error stripe of very-low mass
stars is about and percent, while at larger masses it increases
up to and percent. The radius uncertainty gets larger and age
dependent if isochrones are considered, reaching for Msun about
percent at an age of 5 Gyr. We also investigated the radius
uncertainty at a fixed luminosity. In this case, the cumulative error stripe is
the same for both ZAMS and isochrone models and it ranges from about
percent to and () percent. We also showed that the sole
uncertainty on the chemical composition plays an important role in determining
the radius error stripe, producing a radius variation that ranges between about
and percent on ZAMS models with fixed mass and about
and percent at a fixed luminosity.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in MNRA
Accreting pre-main sequence models and abundance anomalies in globular clusters
We investigated the possibility of producing helium enhanced stars in
globular clusters by accreting polluted matter during the pre-main sequence
phase. We followed the evolution of two different classes of pre-main sequence
accreting models, one which neglects and the other that takes into account the
protostellar evolution.
We analysed the dependence of the final central helium abundance, of the
tracks position in the HR diagram and of the surface lithium abundance
evolution on the age at which the accretion of polluted material begins and on
the main physical parameters that govern the protostellar evolution. The later
is the beginning of the late accretion and the lower are both the central
helium and the surface lithium abundances at the end of the accretion phase and
in ZAMS (Zero Age Main Sequence). In order to produce a relevant increase of
the central helium content the accretion of polluted matter should start at
ages lower than 1 Myr. The inclusion of the protostellar evolution has a strong
impact on the ZAMS models too. The adoption of a very low seed mass (i.e. 0.001
M) results in models with the lowest central helium and surface
lithium abundances. The higher is the accretion rate and the lower is the final
helium content in the core and the residual surface lithium. In the worst case
-- i.e. seed mass 0.001 M and accretion rate M
yr -- the central helium is not increased at all and the surface lithium
is fully depleted in the first few million years.Comment: Accepted for pubblication in MNRAS. 19 pages, 15 figures, 2 table
Effect of planet ingestion on low-mass stars evolution: the case of 2MASS J08095427--4721419 star in the Gamma Velorum cluster
We analysed the effects of planet ingestion on the characteristics of a
pre-MS star similar to the Gamma Velorum cluster member 2MASS
J08095427--4721419 (#52). We discussed the effects of changing the age at
which the accretion episode occurs, the mass of the ingested planet and its
chemical composition. We showed that the mass of the ingested planet required
to explain the current [Fe/H]^#52 increases by decreasing the age and/or
by decreasing the Iron content of the accreted matter.
We compared the predictions of a simplified accretion method -- where only
the variation of the surface chemical composition is considered -- with that of
a full accretion model that properly accounts for the modification of the
stellar structure. We showed that the two approaches result in different
convective envelope extension which can vary up to 10 percent. We discussed the
impact of the planet ingestion on a stellar model in the colour-magnitude
diagram, showing that a maximum shift of about 0.06 dex in the colour and 0.07
dex in magnitude are expected and that such variations persist even much later
the accretion episode. We also analysed the systematic bias in the stellar mass
and age inferred by using a grid of standard non accreting models to recover
the characteristics of an accreting star. We found that standard non accreting
models can safely be adopted for mass estimate, as the bias is <= 6 percent,
while much more caution should be used for age estimate where the differences
can reach about 60 percent.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 13 pages, 3 tables, 9 figure
Cumulative physical uncertainty in modern stellar models. II. The dependence on the chemical composition
We extend our work on the effects of the uncertainties on the main input
physics for the evolution of low-mass stars. We analyse the dependence of the
cumulative physical uncertainty affecting stellar tracks on the chemical
composition. We calculated more than 6000 stellar tracks and isochrones, with
metallicity ranging from Z = 0.0001 to 0.02, by changing the following physical
inputs within their current range of uncertainty: 1H(p,nu e+)2H,
14N(p,gamma)15O and triple-alpha reaction rates, radiative and conductive
opacities, neutrino energy losses, and microscopic diffusion velocities. The
analysis was performed using a latin hypercube sampling design. We examine in a
statistical way the dependence on the variation of the physical inputs of the
turn-off (TO) luminosity, the central hydrogen exhaustion time (t_H), the
luminosity and the helium core mass at the red-giant branch (RGB) tip, and the
zero age horizontal branch (ZAHB) luminosity in the RR Lyrae region. For the
stellar tracks, an increase from Z = 0.0001 to Z = 0.02 produces a cumulative
physical uncertainty in TO luminosity from 0.028 dex to 0.017 dex, while the
global uncertainty on t_H increases from 0.42 Gyr to 1.08 Gyr. For the RGB tip,
the cumulative uncertainty on the luminosity is almost constant at 0.03 dex,
whereas the one the helium core mass decreases from 0.0055 M_sun to 0.0035
M_sun. The dependence of the ZAHB luminosity error is not monotonic with Z, and
it varies from a minimum of 0.036 dex at Z = 0.0005 to a maximum of 0.047 dex
at Z = 0.0001. Regarding stellar isochrones of 12 Gyr, the cumulative physical
uncertainty on the predicted TO luminosity and mass increases respectively from
0.012 dex to 0.014 dex and from 0.0136 M_sun to 0.0186 M_sun. Consequently, for
ages typical of galactic globular clusters, the uncertainty on the age inferred
from the TO luminosity increases from 325 Myr to 415 Myr.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
On the age of Galactic bulge microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars
Recent results by Bensby and collaborators on the ages of microlensed stars
in the Galactic bulge have challenged the picture of an exclusively old stellar
population. However, these age estimates have not been independently confirmed.
In this paper we verify these results by means of a grid-based method and
quantify the systematic biases that might be induced by some assumptions
adopted to compute stellar models. We explore the impact of increasing the
initial helium abundance, neglecting the element microscopic diffusion, and
changing the mixing-length calibration in theoretical stellar track
computations. We adopt the SCEPtER pipeline with a novel stellar model grid for
metallicities [Fe/H] from -2.00 to 0.55 dex, and masses in the range [0.60;
1.60] Msun from the ZAMS to the helium flash at the red giant branch tip. We
show for the considered evolutionary phases that our technique provides
unbiased age estimates. Our age results are in good agreement with Bensby and
collaborators findings and show 16 stars younger than 5 Gyr and 28 younger than
9 Gyr over a sample of 58. The effect of a helium enhancement as large as Delta
Y/Delta Z = 5 is quite modest, resulting in a mean age increase of metal rich
stars of 0.6 Gyr. Even simultaneously adopting a high helium content and the
upper values of age estimates, there is evidence of 4 stars younger than 5 Gyr
and 15 younger than 9 Gyr. For stars younger than 5 Gyr, the use of stellar
models computed by neglecting microscopic diffusion or by assuming a
super-solar mixing-length value leads to a mean increase in the age estimates
of about 0.4 Gyr and 0.5 Gyr respectively. Even considering the upper values
for the age estimates, there are four stars estimated younger than 5 Gyr is in
both cases. Thus, the assessment of a sizeable fraction of young stars among
the microlensed sample in the Galactic bulge appears robust.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Abstract shortene
The Pisa Stellar Evolution Data Base for low-mass stars
The last decade showed an impressive observational effort from the
photometric and spectroscopic point of view for ancient stellar clusters in our
Galaxy and beyond. The theoretical interpretation of these new observational
results requires updated evolutionary models and isochrones spanning a wide
range of chemical composition. With this aim we built the new "Pisa Stellar
Evolution Database" of stellar models and isochrones by adopting a well-tested
evolutionary code (FRANEC) implemented with updated physical and chemical
inputs. In particular, our code adopts realistic atmosphere models and an
updated equation of state, nuclear reaction rates and opacities calculated with
recent solar elements mixture. A total of 32646 models have been computed in
the range of initial masses 0.30 - 1.10 Msun for a grid of 216 chemical
compositions with the fractional metal abundance in mass, Z, ranging from
0.0001 to 0.01, and the original helium content, Y, from 0.25 to 0.42. Models
were computed for both solar-scaled and alpha-enhanced abundances with
different external convection efficiencies. Correspondingly, 9720 isochrones
were computed in the age range 8 - 15 Gyr, in time steps of 0.5 Gyr. The whole
database is available to the scientific community on the web. Models and
isochrones were compared with recent calculations available in the literature
and with the color-magnitude diagram of selected Galactic globular clusters.
The dependence of relevant evolutionary quantities on the chemical composition
and convection efficiency were analyzed in a quantitative statistical way and
analytical formulations were made available for reader's convenience.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Uncertainties on the theoretical predictions for classical Cepheid pulsational quantities
The expected distribution of Cepheids within the instability strip is
affected by several model inputs, reflecting upon the predicted
Period-Luminosity relation. On the basis of new and updated sets of
evolutionary and pulsational models, we quantitatively evaluated the effects on
the theoretical PL relation of current uncertainties on the chemical abundances
of Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud and on several physical assumptions
adopted in the evolutionary models. We analysed how the different factors
influence the evolutionary and pulsational observables and the resulting PL
relation. As a result, we found that present uncertainties on the most relevant
H and He burning reaction rates do not influence in a relevant way the loop
extension in temperature. On the contrary, current uncertainties on the LMC
chemical composition significantly affect the loop extension and also reflect
in the morphology of the instability strip; however their influence on the
predicted pulsational parameters is negligible. We also discussed how
overshooting and mass loss influence the ML relation and the pulsational
parameters. In summary, the present uncertainties on the physical inputs
adopted in the evolutionary codes and in the LMC chemical composition are
negligible for the prediction of the main pulsational properties; the inclusion
of overshooting in the previous H burning phase and/or of mass loss is expected
to significantly change the resulting theoretical pulsational scenario for
Cepheids, as well as the calibration of their distance scale. These systematic
effects are expected to influence the theoretical Cepheid calibration of the
secondary distance indicators and in turn the resulting evaluation of the
Hubble constant.Comment: accepted for publication on A&
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