Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T13:38:00.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hydrodynamic simulations of the core helium flash

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

Miroslav Mocák
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany email: [email protected]
Ewald Müller
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany email: [email protected]
Achim Weiss
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany email: [email protected]
Konstantinos Kifonidis
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We desribe and discuss hydrodynamic simulations of the core helium flash using an initial model of a 1.25 M star with a metallicity of 0.02 near at its peak. Past research concerned with the dynamics of the core helium flash is inconclusive. Its results range from a confirmation of the standard picture, where the star remains in hydrostatic equilibrium during the flash (Deupree 1996), to a disruption or a significant mass loss of the star (Edwards 1969; Cole & Deupree 1980). However, the most recent multidimensional hydrodynamic study (Dearborn et al. 2006) suggests a quiescent behavior of the core helium flash and seems to rule out an explosive scenario. Here we present partial results of a new comprehensive study of the core helium flash, which seem to confirm this qualitative behavior and give a better insight into operation of the convection zone powered by helium burning during the flash. The hydrodynamic evolution is followed on a computational grid in spherical coordinates using our new version of the multi-dimensional hydrodynamic code HERAKLES, which is based on a direct Eulerian implementation of the piecewise parabolic method.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Cole, P. W. & Deupree, R. G., 1980, ApJ, 239, 284CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deupree, R. G., 1996, ApJ, 471, 377Google Scholar
Dearborn, D. S. P., Lattanzio, J. C., & Eggleton, P., 2006, ApJ, 639, 405Google Scholar
Edwards, A. C., 1969, MNRAS 146, 445CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurlburt, N. E., Toomre, J., & Massaguer, J. M., 1986, ApJ, 311, 563Google Scholar
Kifonidis, K., Plewa, T., Janka, H-Th., & Müller, E., 2003, A&A, 408, 621Google Scholar
Meakin, C. A. & Arnett, D., 2007, ApJ, 667, 448CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweigart, A. V. & Gross, P. G., 1978, ApJS, 36, 405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzschild, M. & Härm, R. 1962, ApJ, 136, 158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, A. & Schlattl, H., 2007, Ap&SS, 341Google Scholar