The growth of helium burning cores [SSA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.00659


Helium burning in the convective cores of horizontal branch and `red clump’ stars appears to involve a process of `ingestion’ of unburnt helium into the core, the physics of which has not been identified yet. I show here that a limiting factor controlling the growth is the buoyancy of helium entering the denser C+O core. It yields a growth rate which scales directly with the convective luminosity of the core, and agrees with constraints on core size from current asteroseismology.

Read this paper on arXiv…

H. Spruit
Thu, 3 Sep 15
29/58

Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A