When white dwarfs freeze, the plasma mixtures inside them undergo separation processes that can produce radical changes in the composition profile of the star. The abundance of neutron-rich elements, such as22Ne or56Fe, determines whether or not the first crystals are more or less dense than the surrounding fluid and thus whether they sink or float. These processes have now been studied for C–O–Ne and C–O–Fe mixtures, finding that distillation and precipitation processes are possible in white dwarfs. In this work, we calculate the phase diagram of more complicated O–Ne–Fe mixtures and make predictions for the internal structure of the separated white dwarf. There are two possible outcomes determined by a complicated interplay between the Ne abundance, the22Ne fraction, and the56Fe abundance. Either Fe distills to form an inner core because the first O–Ne solids are buoyant, or an O–Ne inner core forms and Fe accumulates in the liquid until Fe distillation begins and forms an Fe shell. In the case of an Fe shell, a Rayleigh–Taylor instability may arise and overturn the core. In either case, Fe distillation may only produce a cooling delay of order 0.1 Gyr, as these processes occur early at high white dwarf luminosities. Fe inner cores and shells may be detectable through asteroseismology and could enhance the yield of neutron-rich elements such as55Mn and58Ni in supernovae.
The diffusion coefficients of neutron rich nuclei in crystallizing white dwarf (WD) stars are essential microphysics input for modeling the evolution of the composition profile. Recently, molecular dynamics simulations have been used to compute diffusion coefficients for realistic mixtures of C–O and O–Ne WDs with many trace nuclides that could be important sedimentary heat sources such as22Ne,23Na,25Mg, and27Mg. In this brief note, I repeat these simulations but now include56Fe. I find that for the large charge ratios involved in these mixtures the empirical law developed in our earlier work tends to under-predict diffusion coefficients in the moderately coupled regime by 30%–40%. As this formalism is presently implemented in the stellar evolution code MESA, it is important for authors studying mixtures containing heavy nuclides like56Fe to be aware of these systematics. However, the impact on astrophysics is expected to be small.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10484848
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research Notes of the AAS
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2515-5172
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 76
- Size(s):
- ["Article No. 76"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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