Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userRealistic Simulations of Stellar Surface Convection with ANTARES: I. Boundary Conditions and Model Relaxation
159
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
Hannes Grimm-Strele
Publication date
2013
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We have implemented open boundary conditions into the ANTARES code to increase the realism of our simulations of stellar surface convection. Even though we greatly benefit from the high accuracy of our fifth order numerical scheme (WENO5), the broader stencils needed for the numerical scheme complicate the implementation of boundary conditions. We show that the effective temperature of a numerical simulation cannot be changed by corrections at the lower boundary since the thermal stratification does only change on the Kelvin-Helmholtz time scale. Except for very shallow models, this time scale cannot be covered by multidimensional simulations due to the enormous computational requirements. We demonstrate to what extent numerical simulations of stellar surface convection are sensitive to the initial conditions and the boundary conditions. An ill-conceived choice of parameters for the boundary conditions can have a severe impact. Numerical simulations of stellar surface convection will only be (physically) meaningful and realistic if the initial model, the extent and position of the simulation box, and the parameters from the boundary conditions are chosen adequately.
rate research
Read More
The ANTARES code has been designed for simulation of astrophysical flows in a variety of situations, in particular in the context of stellar physics. Here, we describe extensions as necessary to model the interaction of pulsation and convection in classical pulsating stars. These extensions encomprise the introduction of a spherical grid, movable in the radial direction, specific forms of grid-refinement and considerations regarding radiative transfer. We then present the basic parameters of the cepheid we study more closely. For that star we provide a short discussion of patterns of the H+HeI and the HeII convection zones and the interaction with pulsation seen in the pdV work or atmospheric structures.
We analyse the effect on adiabatic stellar oscillation frequencies of replacing the near-surface layers in 1D stellar structure models with averaged 3D stellar surface convection simulations. The main difference is an expansion of the atmosphere by 3D convection, expected to explain a major part of the asteroseismic surface effect; a systematic overestimation of p-mode frequencies due to inadequate surface physics. We employ pairs of 1D stellar envelope models and 3D simulations from a previous calibration of the mixing-length parameter, alpha. That calibration constitutes the hitherto most consistent matching of 1D models to 3D simulations, ensuring that their differences are not spurious, but entirely due to the 3D nature of convection. The resulting frequency shift is identified as the structural part of the surface effect. The important, typically non-adiabatic, modal components of the surface effect are not included in the present analysis, but relegated to future papers. Evaluating the structural surface effect at the frequency of maximum mode amplitude, $ u_{rm max}$, we find shifts from $delta u$=-0.8 microHz for giants at $log g$=2.2 to -35 microHz for a ($T_{rm eff}=6901$ K, $log g$=4.29) dwarf. The fractional effect $delta u( u_{rm max})/ u_{rm max}$, ranges from -0.1% for a cool dwarf (4185 K, 4.74) to -6% for a warm giant (4962 K, 2.20).
The process referred to as semi-convection in astrophysics and double-diffusive convection in the diffusive regime in Earth and planetary sciences, occurs in stellar and planetary interiors in regions which are stable according to the Ledoux criterion but unstable according to the Schwarzschild criterion. In this series of papers, we analyze the results of an extensive suite of 3D numerical simulations of the process, and ultimately propose a new 1D prescription for heat and compositional transport in this regime which can be used in stellar or planetary structure and evolution models. In a preliminary study of the phenomenon, Rosenblum et al. (2011) showed that, after saturation of the primary instability, a system can evolve in one of two possible ways: the induced turbulence either remains homogeneous, with very weak transport properties, or transitions into a thermo-compositional staircase where the transport rate is much larger (albeit still smaller than in standard convection). In this paper, we show that this dichotomous behavior is a robust property of semi-convection across a wide region of parameter space. We propose a simple semi-analytical criterion to determine whether layer formation is expected or not, and at what rate it proceeds, as a function of the background stratification and of the diffusion parameters (viscosity, thermal diffusivity and compositional diffusivity) only. The theoretical criterion matches the outcome of our numerical simulations very adequately in the numerically accessible planetary parameter regime, and can easily be extrapolated to the stellar parameter regime. Subsequent papers will address more specifically the question of quantifying transport in the layered case and in the non-layered case.
Stars on the lower main sequence (F-type through M-type) have substantial convective envelopes beneath their stellar photospheres. Convection in these regions can couple with rotation to build global-scale structures that may be observable by interferometers that can resolve stellar disks. Here I discuss predictions emerging from 3D MHD simulations for solar-type stars with the anelastic spherical harmonic (ASH) code and how these predictions may be observationally tested. The zonal flow of differential rotation is likely the most easily observable signature of dynamics occurring deep within the stellar interior. Generally, we find that rapidly rotating suns have a strong solar-like differential rotation with a prograde equator and retrograde poles while slowly spinning suns may have anti-solar rotation profiles with fast poles and slow equators. The thermal wind balance accompanying the differential rotation may lead to hot and bright poles in the rapid rotators and cooler, darker poles in slow rotators. The convection and differential rotation build global-scale magnetic structures in the bulk of the convection zone, and these wreaths of magnetism may be observable near the stellar surfaces.
We have extended the ANTARES code to simulate the coupling of pulsation with convection in Cepheid-like variables in an increasingly realistic way, in particular in multidimensions, 2D at this stage. Present days models of radially pulsating stars assume radial symmetry and have the pulsation-convection interaction included via model equations containing ad hoc closures and moreover parameters whose values are barely known. We intend to construct ever more realistic multidimensional models of Cepheids. In the present paper, the first of a series, we describe the basic numerical approach and how it is motivated by physical properties of these objects which are sometimes more, sometimes less obvious. - For the construction of appropriate models a polar grid co-moving with the mean radial velocity has been introduced to optimize radial resolution throughout the different pulsation phases. The grid is radially stretched to account for the change of spatial scales due to vertical stratification and a new grid refinement scheme is introduced to resolve the upper, hydrogen ionisation zone where the gradient of temperature is steepest. We demonstrate that the simulations are not conservative when the original weighted essentially non-oscillatory method implemented in ANTARES is used and derive a new scheme which allows a conservative time evolution. The numerical approximation of diffusion follows the same principles. Moreover, the radiative transfer solver has been modified to improve the efficiency of calculations on parallel computers. We show that with these improvements the ANTARES code can be used for realistic simulations of the convection-pulsation interaction in Cepheids. We discuss the properties of several models which include the upper 42% of a Cepheid along its radial coordinate, assume different opening angles, and are suitable for an in-depth study of convection and pulsation.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
