Context. Multidimensional hydrodynamic simulations of convection in stellar interiors are numerically challenging, especially for flows at low Mach numbers. Methods. We explore the benefits of using a low-Mach hydrodynamic flux solver and demonstra
te its usability for simulations in the astrophysical context. The time-implicit Seven-League Hydro (SLH) code was used to perform multidimensional simulations of convective helium shell burning based on a 25 M$_odot$ star model. The results obtained with the low-Mach AUSM$^{+}$-up solver were compared to results when using its non low-Mach variant AUSM$_mathrm{B}^{+}$-up. We applied well-balancing of the gravitational source term to maintain the initial hydrostatic background stratification. The computational grids have resolutions ranging from $180 times 90^2$ to $810 times 540^2$ cells and the nuclear energy release was boosted by factors of $3 times 10^3$, $1 times 10^4$, and $3 times 10^4$ to study the dependence of the results on these parameters. Results. The boosted energy input results in convection at Mach numbers in the range of $10^{-2}$ to $10^{-3}$. Standard mixing-length theory (MLT) predicts convective velocities of about $1.6 times 10^{-4}$ if no boosting is applied. Simulations with AUSM$^{+}$-up show a Kolmogorov-like inertial range in the kinetic energy spectrum that extends further toward smaller scales compared with its non low-Mach variant. The kinetic energy dissipation of the AUSM$^{+}$-up solver already converges at a lower resolution compared to AUSM$^{+}_{mathrm{B}}$ -up. The extracted entrainment rates at the boundaries of the convection zone are well represented by the bulk Richardson entrainment law and the corresponding fitting parameters are in agreement with published results for carbon shell burning.
3D hydrodynamics models of deep stellar convection exhibit turbulent entrainment at the convective-radiative boundary which follows the entrainment law, varying with boundary penetrability. We implement the entrainment law in the 1D Geneva stellar ev
olution code. We then calculate models between 1.5 and 60 M$_{odot}$ at solar metallicity ($Z=0.014$) and compare them to previous generations of models and observations on the main sequence. The boundary penetrability, quantified by the bulk Richardson number, $Ri_{mathrm{B}}$, varies with mass and to a smaller extent with time. The variation of $Ri_{mathrm{B}}$ with mass is due to the mass dependence of typical convective velocities in the core and hence the luminosity of the star. The chemical gradient above the convective core dominates the variation of $Ri_{mathrm{B}}$ with time. An entrainment law method can therefore explain the apparent mass dependence of convective boundary mixing through $Ri_{mathrm{B}}$. New models including entrainment can better reproduce the mass dependence of the main sequence width using entrainment law parameters $A sim 2 times 10^{-4}$ and $n=1$. We compare these empirically constrained values to the results of 3D hydrodynamics simulations and discuss implications.
A 70Msun BH was discovered in Milky Way disk in a long period and almost circular detached binary system (LB-1) with a high metallicity 8Msun B star companion. Current consensus on the formation of BHs from high metallicity stars limits the black hol
e mass to be below 20Msun. Using simple evolutionary model, we show that the formation of a 70Msun BH in high metallicity environment is possible if stellar wind mass loss rates are reduced by factor of 5. As observations indicate, a fraction of massive stars have surface magnetic fields which may quench the wind mass-loss, independently of stellar mass and metallicity. We also computed detailed stellar evolution models and we confirm such a scenario. A non-rotating 85Msun model at Z=0.014 with decreased winds ends up as a 71Msun star prior core-collapse with a 32Msun helium core and a 28Msun CO core. Such star avoids pair-instability pulsation supernova mass loss and may form a 70Msun BH in the direct collapse. Stars that can form such BHs expand to significant size with radius of R>600Rsun, exceeding the size of LB-1 orbit. Therefore, we can explain the formation of BHs upto 70Msun at high metallicity and this result is independent from LB-1. However, if LB-1 hosts a massive BH we are unable to explain how such a binary star system could have formed without invoking some exotic scenarios.
Aims. We investigate the s-process during the AGB phase of stellar models whose cores are enforced to rotate at rates consistent with asteroseismology observations of their progenitors and successors. Methods. We calculated new 2M$_{odot}$, Z=0.01 mo
dels, rotating at 0, 125, and 250 km/s at the start of main sequence. An artificial, additional viscosity was added to enhance the transport of angular momentum in order to reduce the core rotation rates to be in agreement with asteroseismology observations. We compared rotation rates of our models with observed rotation rates during the MS up to the end of core He burning, and the white dwarf phase. Results. We present nucleosynthesis calculations for these rotating AGB models that were enforced to match the asteroseismic constraints on rotation rates of MS, RGB, He-burning, and WD stars. In particular, we calculated one model that matches the upper limit of observed rotation rates of core He-burning stars and we also included a model that rotates one order of magnitude faster than the upper limit of the observations. The s-process production in both of these models is comparable to that of non-rotating models. Conclusions. Slowing down the core rotation rate in stars to match the above mentioned asteroseismic constraints reduces the rotationally induced mixing processes to the point that they have no effect on the s-process nucleosynthesis. This result is independent of the initial rotation rate of the stellar evolution model. However, there are uncertainties remaining in the treatment of rotation in stellar evolution, which need to be reduced in order to confirm our conclusions, including the physical nature of our approach to reduce the core rotation rates of our models, and magnetic processes.
It has been suggested that a $ u$p process can occur when hot, dense, and proton-rich matter is expanding within a strong flux of anti-neutrinos. In such an environment, proton-rich nuclides can be produced in sequences of proton captures and (n,p) r
eactions, where the free neutrons are created in situ by $overline{ u}_mathrm{e}+mathrm{p} rightarrow mathrm{n}+mathrm{e}^+$ reactions. The detailed hydrodynamic evolution determines where the nucleosynthesis path turns off from N = Z line and how far up the nuclear chart it runs. In this work, the uncertainties on the final isotopic abundances stemming from uncertainties in the nuclear reaction rates were investigated in a large-scale Monte Carlo approach, simultaneously varying ten thousand reactions. A large range of model conditions was investigated because a definitive astrophysical site for the $ u$p process has not yet been identified. The present parameter study provides, for each model, identification of the key nuclear reactions dominating the uncertainty for a given nuclide abundance. As all rates appearing in the $ u$p process involve unstable nuclei, and thus only theoretical rates are available, the final abundance uncertainties are larger than those for nucleosynthesis processes closer to stability. Nevertheless, most uncertainties remain below a factor of three in trajectories with robust nucleosynthesis. More extreme conditions allow production of heavier nuclides but show larger uncertainties because of the accumulation of the uncertainties in many rates and because the termination of nucleosynthesis is not at equilibrium conditions. It is also found that the solar ratio of the abundances of ${}^{92}$Mo and ${}^{94}$Mo could be reproduced within uncertainties.
Convective boundary mixing is one of the major uncertainties in stellar evolution. In order to study its dependence on boundary properties and turbulence strength in a controlled way, we computed a series of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of stellar c
onvection during carbon burning with a varying boosting factor of the driving luminosity. Our 3D implicit large eddy simulations were computed with the PROMPI code. We performed a mean field analysis of the simulations within the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes framework. Both the vertical RMS velocity within the convective region and the bulk Richardson number of the boundaries are found to scale with the driving luminosity as expected from theory. The positions of the convective boundaries were estimated through the composition profiles across them, and the strength of convective boundary mixing was determined by analysing the boundaries within the framework of the entrainment law. We find that the entrainment is approximately inversely proportional to the bulk Richardson number. Although the entrainment law does not encompass all the processes occurring at boundaries, our results support the use of the entrainment law to describe convective boundary mixing in 1D models, at least for the advanced phases. The next steps and challenges ahead are also discussed.
We investigated the impact of uncertainties in neutron-capture and weak reactions (on heavy elements) on the s-process nucleosynthesis in low-mass stars using a Monte-Carlo based approach. We performed extensive nuclear reaction network calculations
that include newly evaluated temperature-dependent upper and lower limits for the individual reaction rates. Our sophisticated approach is able to evaluate the reactions that impact more significantly the final abundances. We found that beta-decay rate uncertainties affect typically nuclides near s-process branchings, whereas most of the uncertainty in the final abundances is caused by uncertainties in neutron capture rates, either directly producing or destroying the nuclide of interest. Combined total nuclear uncertainties due to reactions on heavy elements are approximately 50%.
Several thousand tracers from a 2D model of a thermonuclear supernova were used in a Monte Carlo post-processing approach to determine p-nuclide abundance uncertainties originating from nuclear physics uncertainties in the reaction rates.
The main s-process taking place in low mass stars produces about half of the elements heavier than iron. It is therefore very important to determine the importance and impact of nuclear physics uncertainties on this process. We have performed extensi
ve nuclear reaction network calculations using individual and temperature-dependent uncertainties for reactions involving elements heavier than iron, within a Monte Carlo framework. Using this technique, we determined the uncertainty in the main s-process abundance predictions due to nuclear uncertainties link to weak interactions and neutron captures on elements heavier than iron. We also identified the key nuclear reactions dominating these uncertainties. We found that $beta$-decay rate uncertainties affect only a few nuclides near s-process branchings, whereas most of the uncertainty in the final abundances is caused by uncertainties in neutron capture rates, either directly producing or destroying the nuclide of interest. Combined total nuclear uncertainties due to reactions on heavy elements are in general small (less than 50%). Three key reactions, nevertheless, stand out because they significantly affect the uncertainties of a large number of nuclides. These are $^{56}$Fe(n,$gamma$), $^{64}$Ni(n,$gamma$), and $^{138}$Ba(n,$gamma$). We discuss the prospect of reducing uncertainties in the key reactions identified in this study with future experiments.
The s-process in massive stars, producing nuclei up to $Aapprox 90$, has a different behaviour at low metallicity if stellar rotation is significant. This enhanced s-process is distinct from the s-process in massive stars around solar metallicity, an
d details of the nucleosynthesis are poorly known. We investigated nuclear physics uncertainties in the enhanced s-process in metal-poor stars within a Monte-Carlo framework. We applied temperature-dependent uncertainties of reaction rates, distinguishing contributions from the ground state and from excited states. We found that the final abundance of several isotopes shows uncertainties larger than a factor of 2, mostly due to the neutron capture uncertainties. A few nuclei around branching points are affected by uncertainties in the $beta$-decay.
