Abstract Stellar evolution models calculate convective boundaries using either the Schwarzschild or Ledoux criterion, but confusion remains regarding which criterion to use. Here we present a 3D hydrodynamical simulation of a convection zone and adjacent radiative zone, including both thermal and compositional buoyancy forces. As expected, regions that are unstable according to the Ledoux criterion are convective. Initially, the radiative zone adjacent to the convection zone is Schwarzschild unstable but Ledoux stable due to a composition gradient. Over many convective overturn timescales, the convection zone grows via entrainment. The convection zone saturates at the size originally predicted by the Schwarzschild criterion, although in this final state the Schwarzschild and Ledoux criteria agree. Therefore, the Schwarzschild criterion should be used to determine the size of stellar convection zones, except possibly during short-lived evolutionary stages in which entrainment persists.
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3D Hydrodynamic Simulations of Massive Main-sequence Stars. III. The Effect of Radiation Pressure and Diffusion Leading to a 1D Equilibrium Model
Abstract We present 3D hydrodynamical simulations of core convection with a stably stratified envelope of a 25M⊙star in the early phase of the main sequence. We use the explicit gas-dynamics codePPMstar, which tracks two fluids and includes radiation pressure and radiative diffusion. Multiple series of simulations with different luminosities and radiative thermal conductivities are presented. The entrainment rate at the convective boundary, internal gravity waves in and above the boundary region, and the approach to dynamical equilibrium shortly after a few convective turnovers are investigated. We perform very long simulations on 8963grids accelerated by luminosity boost factors of 1000, 3162 and 10,000. In these simulations, the growing penetrative convection reduces the initially unrealistically large entrainment. This reduction is enabled by a spatial separation that develops between the entropy gradient and the composition gradient. The convective boundary moves outward much more slowly at the end of these simulations. Finally, we present a 1D method to predict the extent and character of penetrative convection beyond the Schwarzschild boundary. The 1D model is based on a spherically averaged reduced entropy equation that takes the turbulent dissipation as input from the 3D hydrodynamic simulation and takes buoyancy and all other energy sources and sinks into account. This 1D method is intended to be ultimately deployed in 1D stellar evolution calculations and is based on the properties of penetrative convection in our simulations carried forward through the local thermal timescale.
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- PAR ID:
- 10556493
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 975
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 271
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- convection, massive stars, internal gravity waves, mixing length theory, stellar hydrodynamics, convective boundary mixing
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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