Computational Difficulties in

Modeling AGB Evolution

5 May 2016

Alex de la Vega

The AGB Evolutionary Track

Stars with mass 0.8 M M 8 M evolve through AGB
H fuses into He within core; fusion stops
Gravitational contraction leads to H-burning shell, leads to RGB
If M 4 M convective envelope may penetrate H-shell, bottom of envelope
burns, Hot Bottom Burning
Core burns He, goes to horizontal branch, back to RGB asymptotically when He
depleted
CO core, H- and He-shells, thermal instabilities lead to periodic thermal pulses
Inner material mixes with outer layers (dredge-up), s-process nuclei, mass loss rates
108 104 M yr1
Stellar winds lead to planetary nebulae, white dwarfs

The AGB Evolutionary Track (cont.)

Model Uncertainties

Sensitive dependence on convective and mixing processes

and mass loss
Good qualitative matches with data, but there exist plenty
of quantitative uncertainties
Believed that stellar convection is still not entirely
understood
Dredge-ups may not even occur depending on how
convection is modeled

Modeling Convection
Simulations use adaptive grid, hydrodynamic, or hydrostatic codes
Mixing Length Theory of Bohm-Vitense
very common for 1D codes L = HP

turbulence is incompressible
1 < < 2 normally free parameter!
Schwartzschild criterion used to establish size of convective regions
Full Spectrum of Turbulence (Canuto & Mazzitelli(1991)) elements spectrum of diff.
sizes, turbulence compressible
Synthetic models combine previous models and/or obs. cheaper, used for pop.
synth.
Pasetto et al. (2014) - FST but non-local, time depend., Bernoulli
321D of Arnett et al. (2015) numerical sol. of Navier-Stokes can model top &
bottom boundary layers of stellar convection zones cant w/ MLT

Convection in AGB Stars

Schwartzschild criterion assumes a = 0, but v 6= 0 necessarily
Extend convective regions with overshoot leads to increased mixing, e.g.
third dredge-up (TDU)
Herwig et al. (1997) TDU only w/ overshoot for M 3 M
Ventura & DAntona (2005) vast differences between FST and MLT see
below

Mixing Processes The Third Dredge-Up

Occurs during thermal pulse phase carries nucleosynthesis products from H and He
burning to surface
Thermal pulse dredge-up interpulse cycle, depends on initial mass, composition,
mass loss
M
TDU efficiency = MDU
H

Mowlavi (1999) no TDU w/o overshoot using rad = ad gives discontinuity in X(H)
Adding overshoot region avoids discontinuity; results in efficient TDU
Herwig (2005) premix several grid shells before determining boundary repeat until
convergence
Frost & Lattanzio (1996) iteratively mix Xi near boundary, keep Xi fixed until models
converge, then mix Xi

Mixing Processes Hot Bottom Burning

HBB arises in intermediate mass stars (M 4 M ) when convective

envelope dips into H-burning shell
shell acquires more fuel, bottom of envelope has large rise in temperature,
increases luminosity
HBB can turn dredged-up C into N and increases Li production
Under MLT, HBB more efficient with larger but FST more efficient than MLT
To get HBB:
FST: M 4 M
MLT: M 6 M

Towards end of AGB mass loss reduces HBB efficiency decreases

Mass Loss Modeling

AGB stars suffer mass loss 108 104 M yr1

Determines number of thermal pulses, dredge-up may not happen
First and most common Reimers (1975) empirical formula:
= 4 1013 L
M
gR
1
3

. . 3 free parameter!

Catelan (2009):
None of the current mass loss formulae fit derived rates (for Origlia et al. (2002))
No clear dependence of mass loss on L, g or R
No clear correlation between mass loss and metallicity
Mass loss appears to be episodic, not continuous

Mass Loss Modeling (cont.)

Nucleosynthesis Modeling

Mostly due to the interaction between H- and He-burning shells

Modeling nucleosynthesis largely depends on how one treats convection,
mixing processes and mass loss
Often handled through postprocessing thermodynamic info from
numerical stellar models as input for chemical calculations
Feedback between assumed mixing processes and stellar structure does
not occur but yields good qual. & quant. results!

Nucleosynthesis Modeling s-process

Slow neutron capture process (or s-process) responsible for half of all
elements heavier than Fe
Nuclei products begin with Fe group and ascend closely valley of stability
main source for s-process neutrons is 13 C(, n)16 O reaction
During TDUs H-rich convective envelope dips into 12 C-rich intershell, giving
rise to 13 C
Overshoot is important can affect s-process production
Herwig et al. (1997), Herwig (2000) gives time-dependent, convective
overshoot code with exponential diffusion:



2 X 
dXi
Xi

i
=
+
4r 2 D
,
dt
t nuc
Mr
Mr
D depends on choice of convection
For above, w/ overshoot we get TDU; without overshoot, no TDU (though
this depends on mass)
Lugaro et al. (2003) uncertainty in s-process predictions may be from 13 C,
not presence/absence of overshoot

Progress in the Thermal Pulse Phase

Schwartzschild & Harm

(1965) discover thermal pulses thermal

instabilities in helium-burning shells in non-degenerate stars

Eggleton (1971, 1972) developed codes that could solve implicitly and
simultaneously equations for stellar structure and abundance profiles from
mixing and reactions
MLT with diffusion to describe convection in AGB stars

Very recent work Marigo et al. (2013) COLIBRI code

self-consistently computes convective envelope structures, HBB
nucleosynthesis, abundances after each thermal pulse
on-the-fly calculations of the equation of state for 800 atoms, ions, molecules
very computationally fast, able to generate entire TP-AGB grids in a few hours

Rosenfield et al. (2016) mass loss relation for low-mass, low-metallicity

stars consistent with HST observations

Super-AGB

Usually between 8 M just below which leads to CO white dwarfs, to

11 M leads to ONeMg cores
Still suffer from uncertainties in modeling convection convective
processes determine temperature at base and extent of stellar envelope,
thereby affecting mass loss
Jin et al. (2015) find X (H) discontinuity from MLT w/ overshoot for
Super-AGB

The Low Metallicity Regime

CNO material for H-burning absent pp-chain must produce nuclear

energy, at least initially
for Z << 1, entropy barrier between H- and He-burning shells diminishes
and mixing of H with 12 C in the He-shell may incite violent
convective-reactive phases
MLT with diffusion unable to treat situation; cannot account for nuclear
energy injection on a hydrodynamic time scale
Use 3D hydrodynamical code instead

Image References

Herwig, F. 2005, Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 43, 435 - 79

Karakas, A. I., Lattanzio, J. C., & Pols, O. R. 2002, Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust., 19, 515
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixing length model
Ventura, P., & DAntona, F. 2005, A&A, 431, 279
Mowlavi, N. 1999, A&A, 344, 617
Origlia, L., Ferraro, F. R., Fusi Pecci, F., & Rood, R. T. 2002, ApJ, 571, 458