Mixing Uncertainties in Low-Metallicity AGB Stars: The Impact on Stellar Structure and Nucleosynthesis
The slow neutron-capture process (s-process) efficiency in low-mass AGB stars (1.5 < M/M⊙ < 3) critically depends on how mixing processes in stellar interiors are handled, which is still affected by considerable uncertainties. In this work, we compute the evolution and nucleosynthesis of low-mass AGB stars at low metallicities using the MESA stellar evolution code. The combined data set includes models with initial masses Mini/M⊙=2 and 3 for initial metallicities Z=0.001 and 0.002. The nucleosynthesis was calculated for all relevant isotopes by post-processing with the NuGrid mppnp code. Using these models, we show the impact of the uncertainties affecting the main mixing processes on heavy element nucleosynthesis, such as convection and mixing at convective boundaries. We finally compare our theoretical predictions with observed surface abundances on low-metallicity stars. We find that mixing at the interface between the He-intershell and the CO-core has a critical impact on the s-process at low metallicities, and its importance is comparable to convective boundary mixing processes under the convective envelope, which determine the formation and size of the 13C-pocket. Additionally, our results indicate that models with very low to no mixing below the He-intershell during thermal pulses, and with a 13C-pocket size of at least more »
Authors:
; ; ; ;
Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10296795
Journal Name:
Universe
Volume:
7
Issue:
2
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
25
ISSN:
2218-1997
1. ABSTRACT In this work, we investigate the impact of uncertainties due to convective boundary mixing (CBM), commonly called ‘overshoot’, namely the boundary location and the amount of mixing at the convective boundary, on stellar structure and evolution. For this we calculated two grids of stellar evolution models with the MESA code, each with the Ledoux and the Schwarzschild boundary criterion, and vary the amount of CBM. We calculate each grid with the initial masses of 15, 20, and $25\, \rm {M}_\odot$. We present the stellar structure of the models during the hydrogen and helium burning phases. In the latter, we examine the impact on the nucleosynthesis. We find a broadening of the main sequence with more CBM, which is more in agreement with observations. Furthermore, during the core hydrogen burning phase there is a convergence of the convective boundary location due to CBM. The uncertainties of the intermediate convective zone remove this convergence. The behaviour of this convective zone strongly affects the surface evolution of the model, i.e. how fast it evolves redwards. The amount of CBM impacts the size of the convective cores and the nucleosynthesis, e.g. the 12C to 16O ratio and the weak s-process. Lastly, we determinemore »
3. ABSTRACT We have modelled the multicycle evolution of rapidly accreting CO white dwarfs (RAWDs) with stable H burning intermittent with strong He-shell flashes on their surfaces for 0.7 ≤ MRAWD/M⊙ ≤ 0.75 and [Fe/H] ranging from 0 to −2.6. We have also computed the i-process nucleosynthesis yields for these models. The i process occurs when convection driven by the He-shell flash ingests protons from the accreted H-rich surface layer, which results in maximum neutron densities Nn, max ≈ 1013–1015 cm−3. The H-ingestion rate and the convective boundary mixing (CBM) parameter ftop adopted in the one-dimensional nucleosynthesis and stellar evolution models are constrained through three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic simulations. The mass ingestion rate and, for the first time, the scaling laws for the CBM parameter ftop have been determined from 3D hydrodynamic simulations. We confirm our previous result that the high-metallicity RAWDs have a low mass retention efficiency ($\eta \lesssim 10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$). A new result is that RAWDs with [Fe/H] $\lesssim -2$ have $\eta \gtrsim 20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$; therefore, their masses may reach the Chandrasekhar limit and they may eventually explode as SNeIa. This result and the good fits of the i-process yields from the metal-poor RAWDs to the observed chemicalmore »