No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Physical mechanisms of mixing in stellar interiors
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Abstract
The different mechanisms by which mixing can take place in stellar interiors are considered : the classical Rayleigh-Benard instability with penetrative convection and over-shooting, semi-convection, gravitationnal and radiative settling, turbulent mixing. The latter mechanism is thoroughly described, from the driving force of turbulent mixing to its influence on stellar structure, stellar evolution and the analysis of the corresponding observationnal data.
Turbulent mixing has to be considered each time the building up of a concentration gradient takes place, either by gravitationnal or radiative settling or by nuclear reactions. Turbulent mixing, as a first approximation, can be described by an isotropic diffusion coefficient. The process is then governed by a diffusion equation. The behaviour of the solution of the diffusion equation needs some explanation in order to be well understood.
A number of examples concerning surface abundances of chemical elements are given (3He, 7Li, Be, 12C, 13C, 14N), as well as a discussion of the solar neutrinos problem.
The building up of a µ-barrier, which stops the turbulence allows stellar evolution towards the giant branch and explains nitrogen abundance at the surface of giants of the first ascending branch.
Turbulent mixing is also of some importance for the transfer of angular momentum and has to be taken into account for explaining the abundance of the elements in Wolf-Rayet stars.
- Type
- III. BINARITY, PULSATION, ROTATION AND MIXING
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Reidel 1984