8 research outputs found
Outer boundary conditions for evolving cool white dwarfs
White dwarf evolution is essentially a gravothermal cooling process,
which,for cool white dwarfs, sensitively depends on the treatment of the outer
boundary conditions. We provide detailed outer boundary conditions appropriate
for computing the evolution of cool white dwarfs employing detailed non-gray
model atmospheres for pure H composition. We also explore the impact on the
white dwarf cooling times of different assumptions for energy transfer in the
atmosphere of cool white dwarfs. Detailed non-gray model atmospheres are
computed taken into account non-ideal effects in the gas equation of state and
chemical equilibrium, collision-induced absorption from molecules, and the
Lyman alpha quasi-molecular opacity. Our results show that the use of detailed
outer boundary conditions becomes relevant for effective temperatures lower
than 5800 and 6100K for sequences with 0.60 and 0.90 M_sun, respectively.
Detailed model atmospheres predict ages that are up to approx 10% shorter at
log L/L_sun=-4 when compared with the ages derived using Eddington-like
approximations at tau_Ross=2/3. We also analyze the effects of various
assumptions and physical processes of relevance in the calculation of outer
boundary conditions. In particular, we find that the Ly_alpha red wing
absorption does not affect substantially the evolution of white dwarfs. White
dwarf cooling timescales are sensitive to the surface boundary conditions for
T_eff < 6000K. Interestingly enough, non-gray effects have little consequences
on these cooling times at observable luminosities. In fact, collision-induced
absorption processes, which significantly affect the spectra and colors of old
white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich atmospheres, have not noticeable effects in
their cooling rates, except throughout the Rosseland mean opacity.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic
The white dwarf cooling sequence of NGC 6791: a unique tool for stellar evolution
NGC 6791 is a well-studied, metal-rich open cluster that is so close to us
that can be imaged down to luminosities fainter than that of the termination of
its white dwarf cooling sequence, thus allowing for an in-depth study of its
white dwarf population. We use a Monte Carlo simulator that employs up-to-date
evolutionary cooling sequences for white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich and
hydrogen-deficient atmospheres, with carbon-oxygen and helium cores. The
cooling sequences for carbon-oxygen cores account for the delays introduced by
both Ne^22 sedimentation in the liquid phase and by carbon-oxygen phase
separation upon crystallization. We do not find evidence for a substantial
fraction of helium-core white dwarfs, and hence our results support the
suggestion that the origin of the bright peak of the white dwarf luminosity
function can only be attributed to a population of unresolved binary white
dwarfs. Moreover, our results indicate that the number distribution of
secondary masses of the population of unresolved binaries has to increase with
increasing mass ratio between the secondary and primary components of the
progenitor system. We also find that the observed cooling sequence appears to
be able to constrain the presence of progenitor sub-populations with different
chemical compositions and the fraction of non-DA white dwarfs. Our simulations
place interesting constraints on important characteristics of the stellar
populations of NGC 6791. In particular, we find that the fraction of single
helium-core white dwarfs must be smaller than 5%, that a sub-population of
stars with zero metallicity must be <12%, while if the adopted metallicity of
the sub-population is solar the upper limit is ~8%. Finally, we also find that
the fraction of non-DA white dwarfs in this particular cluster is surprinsingly
small <6%.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
The correlation between C/O ratio, metallicity and the initial WD mass for SNe Ia
In this paper, we want to check whether or not the carbon abundance can be
affected by initial metallicity. We calculated a series of stellar evolution.
We found that when , the carbon abundance is almost independent of
metallicity if it is plotted against the initial WD mass. However, when
, the carbon abundance is not only a function of the initial WD mass,
but also metallicity, i.e. for a given initial WD mass, the higher the
metallicity, the lower the carbon abundance. Based on some previous studies,
i.e. both a high metallicity and a low carbon abundance lead to a lower
production of Ni formed during SN Ia explosion, the effects of the
carbon abundance and the metallicity on the amount of Ni are
enhanced by each other, which may account for the variation of maximum
luminosity of SNe Ia, at least qualitatively. Considering that the central
density of WD before supernova explosion may also play a role on the production
of Ni and the carbon abundance, the metallicity and the central
density are all determined by the initial parameters of progenitor system, i.e.
the initial WD mass, metallicity, orbital period and secondary mass, the amount
of Ni might be a function of the initial parameters. Then, our
results might construct a bridge linking the progenitor model and the explosion
model of SNe Ia.Comment: 7pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Revisiting the fundamental properties of the Cepheid Polaris using detailed stellar evolution models
First measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in proton-proton collisions at =7 TeV
The first measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in
pp collisions at the LHC at center-of-mass energy sqrt(s)= 7 TeV has been
performed using 3.1 {\pm} 0.3 inverse pb of data recorded by the CMS detector.
This result utilizes the final state with two isolated, highly energetic
charged leptons, large missing transverse energy, and two or more jets.
Backgrounds from Drell-Yan and non-W/Z boson production are estimated from
data. Eleven events are observed in the data with 2.1 {\pm} 1.0 events expected
from background. The measured cross section is 194 {\pm} 72 (stat.) {\pm} 24
(syst.) {\pm} 21 (lumi.) pb, consistent with next-to-leading order predictions