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Auteurs principaux: Morton, Jack, Guillet, Thomas, Baraffe, Isabelle, Morison, Adrien, Saux, Arthur Le, Vlaykov, Dimitar, Goffrey, Tom, Pratt, Jane
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03796
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author Morton, Jack
Guillet, Thomas
Baraffe, Isabelle
Morison, Adrien
Saux, Arthur Le
Vlaykov, Dimitar
Goffrey, Tom
Pratt, Jane
author_facet Morton, Jack
Guillet, Thomas
Baraffe, Isabelle
Morison, Adrien
Saux, Arthur Le
Vlaykov, Dimitar
Goffrey, Tom
Pratt, Jane
contents Here we present a study of radial chemical mixing in non-rotating massive main-sequence stars driven by internal gravity waves (IGWs), based on multi-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with the fully compressible code MUSIC. We examine two proposed mechanisms of material mixing in stars by IGWs that are commonly quoted, relating to thermal diffusion and sub-wavelength shearing. Thermal diffusion provides a non-restorative effect to the waves, leaving material displaced from its previous equilibrium, while shearing arising within the waves drives weak localised flows, mixing the fluid there. Using IGW spectra from the simulations, we evaluate theoretical predictions of mixing rates due to these mechanisms. We show, for $20M_\odot$ main-sequence stars, that neither of these mechanisms are likely to create mixing sufficient to correct inaccuracies in current stellar evolution models. Furthermore, we compare these predictions to results obtained from Lagrangian tracer particles, following a method recently used for global simulations of stellar interiors to measure mixing by IGWs in their radiative zones. We demonstrate that tracer particle methods face significant numerical challenges in measuring the small diffusion coefficients predicted by the aforementioned theories, for which they are prone to yielding artificially enhanced coefficients. Diffusion coefficients based on such methods are currently used with stellar evolution codes for asteroseismic studies, but should be viewed with caution. Finally, in a case where tracer particles do not suffer from numerical artefacts, we suggest that a diffusion model is not suitable for timescales typically considered by two-dimensional numerical simulations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_03796
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mixing by Internal Gravity Waves in Stars: Assessing Numerical Simulations Against Theory
Morton, Jack
Guillet, Thomas
Baraffe, Isabelle
Morison, Adrien
Saux, Arthur Le
Vlaykov, Dimitar
Goffrey, Tom
Pratt, Jane
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Here we present a study of radial chemical mixing in non-rotating massive main-sequence stars driven by internal gravity waves (IGWs), based on multi-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with the fully compressible code MUSIC. We examine two proposed mechanisms of material mixing in stars by IGWs that are commonly quoted, relating to thermal diffusion and sub-wavelength shearing. Thermal diffusion provides a non-restorative effect to the waves, leaving material displaced from its previous equilibrium, while shearing arising within the waves drives weak localised flows, mixing the fluid there. Using IGW spectra from the simulations, we evaluate theoretical predictions of mixing rates due to these mechanisms. We show, for $20M_\odot$ main-sequence stars, that neither of these mechanisms are likely to create mixing sufficient to correct inaccuracies in current stellar evolution models. Furthermore, we compare these predictions to results obtained from Lagrangian tracer particles, following a method recently used for global simulations of stellar interiors to measure mixing by IGWs in their radiative zones. We demonstrate that tracer particle methods face significant numerical challenges in measuring the small diffusion coefficients predicted by the aforementioned theories, for which they are prone to yielding artificially enhanced coefficients. Diffusion coefficients based on such methods are currently used with stellar evolution codes for asteroseismic studies, but should be viewed with caution. Finally, in a case where tracer particles do not suffer from numerical artefacts, we suggest that a diffusion model is not suitable for timescales typically considered by two-dimensional numerical simulations.
title Mixing by Internal Gravity Waves in Stars: Assessing Numerical Simulations Against Theory
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03796