An Atlas of Convection in Main-sequence Stars
Abstract

Convection is ubiquitous in stars and occurs under many different conditions. Here we explore convection in main-sequence stars through two lenses: dimensionless parameters arising from stellar structure and parameters that emerge from the application of mixing length theory. We first define each quantity in terms familiar to both the 1D stellar evolution community and the hydrodynamics community. We then explore the variation of these quantities across different convection zones, different masses, and different stages of main-sequence evolution. We find immense diversity across stellar convection zones. Convection occurs in thin shells, deep envelopes, and nearly spherical cores; it can be efficient or inefficient, rotationally constrained or not, transsonic or deeply subsonic. This atlas serves as a guide for future theoretical and observational investigations by indicating which regimes of convection are active in a given star, and by describing appropriate model assumptions for numerical simulations.

Authors:
; ; ;
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10370151
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume:
262
Issue:
1
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
Article No. 19
ISSN:
0067-0049
Publisher:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
National Science Foundation
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