Tuesday, November 29, 2011

1111.6777 (Ami S. Glasner et al.)

Convective Undershoot Mixing in Nova Outbursts - the Dependence on the Composition of the Underlying White Dwarf    [PDF]

Ami S. Glasner, Eli Livne, James W. Truran
We present here, for the first time, a 2D study of the undershoot convective mechanism in nova outbursts for a wide range of possible compositions of the layer underlying the accreted envelope. Previous surveys studied the mechanism only for solar matter accreted on top of a carbon oxygen white dwarf. Mixing with carbon was found to be crucial for the process since it dramatically enhanced the burning rates. According to observations and stellar evolution theory, in classical and recurrent novae the outermost underlying layer of the white dwarf can also be composed of ONe or pure Helium. In all the cases we examined we found significant amounts of mixing. We present the details of the burning rates and the convective flow for each underlying layer and discuss its significance for the long term debate as to the exact mechanism responsible for the enrichment of novae ejecta. Our results show that the undershoot convective dredge up model predict mixing amounts that can be consistent with observations in all the cases we examined, including helium enrichment in recurrent novae.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.6777

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