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Title: Code dependencies of pre-supernova evolution and nucleosynthesis in massive stars: evolution to the end of core helium burning

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [7]
  1. Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada); Keele Univ. (United Kingdom)
  2. Keele Univ. (United Kingdom); Univ. of Tokyo (Japan)
  3. Univ. of Basel (Switzerland)
  4. Monash Univ., Melbourne, VIC (Australia); Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States). School of Physics and Astronomy; Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  5. Keele Univ. (United Kingdom)
  6. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  7. Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada); Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We present a comparison of 15M⊙ , 20M⊙ and 25M⊙ stellar models from three different codes|GENEC, KEPLER and MESA|and their nucleosynthetic yields. The models are calculated from the main sequence up to the pre-supernova (pre-SN) stage and do not include rotation. The GENEC and KEPLER models hold physics assumptions that are characteristic of the two codes. The MESA code is generally more flexible; overshooting of the convective core during the hydrogen and helium burning phases in MESA is chosen such that the CO core masses are consistent with those in the GENEC models. Full nucleosynthesis calculations are performed for all models using the NuGrid post-processing tool MPPNP and the key energy-generating nuclear reaction rates are the same for all codes. We are thus able to highlight the key diferences between the models that are caused by the contrasting physics assumptions and numerical implementations of the three codes. A reasonable agreement is found between the surface abundances predicted by the models computed using the different codes, with GENEC exhibiting the strongest enrichment of H-burning products and KEPLER exhibiting the weakest. There are large variations in both the structure and composition of the models—the 15M⊙ and 20M⊙ in particular—at the pre-SN stage from code to code caused primarily by convective shell merging during the advanced stages. For example the C-shell abundances of O, Ne and Mg predicted by the three codes span one order of magnitude in the 15M⊙ models. For the alpha elements between Si and Fe the differences are even larger. The s-process abundances in the C shell are modified by the merging of convective shells; the modification is strongest in the 15M⊙ model in which the C-shell material is exposed to O-burning temperatures and the γ -process is activated. The variation in the s-process abundances across the codes is smallest in the 25M⊙ models, where it is comparable to the impact of nuclear reaction rate uncertainties. In general the differences in the results from the three codes are due to their contrasting physics assumptions (e.g. prescriptions for mass loss and convection). The broadly similar evolution of the 25M⊙ models gives us reassurance that different stellar evolution codes do produce similar results. For the 15M⊙ and 20M⊙ models, however, the different input physics and the interplay between the various convective zones lead to important differences in both the pre-supernova structure and nucleosynthesis predicted by the three codes. For the KEPLER models the core masses are different and therefore an exact match could not be expected.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1240392
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-28600
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 447, Issue 4; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 36 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (19)

Modeling the early evolution of massive OB stars with an experimental wind routine: The first bi-stability jump and the angular momentum loss problem journal January 2017
Beyond Mixing-Length Theory: a step Toward 321d journal August 2015
Metallicity-constrained merger rates of binary black holes and the stochastic gravitational wave background journal June 2016
Convective boundary mixing in a post-He core burning massive star model journal December 2018
60Fe in core-collapse supernovae and prospects for X-ray and gamma-ray detection in supernova remnants journal February 2019
The C 12 ( α , γ ) O 16 reaction and its implications for stellar helium burning journal September 2017
NUGRID STELLAR DATA SET. I. STELLAR YIELDS FROM H TO BI FOR STARS WITH METALLICITIES Z = 0.02 and Z = 0.01 journal August 2016
Evolutionary Models of Red Supergiants: Evidence for A Metallicity-dependent Mixing Length and Implications for Type IIP Supernova Progenitors journal January 2018
Parameterizing the Supernova Engine and Its Effect on Remnants and Basic Yields journal March 2018
Validating Semi-analytic Models of High-redshift Galaxy Formation Using Radiation Hydrodynamical Simulations journal May 2018
SkyNet: A Modular Nuclear Reaction Network Library journal December 2017
Astrophysical Implications of the Binary Black hole Merger Gw150914 journal February 2016
NuGrid stellar data set – II. Stellar yields from H to Bi for stellar models with MZAMS = 1–25 M⊙ and Z = 0.0001–0.02 journal June 2018
Beyond Mixing-length Theory: a step toward 321D text January 2015
Metallicity-constrained merger rates of binary black holes and the stochastic gravitational wave background text January 2016
NuGrid Stellar Data Set. II. Stellar Yields from H to Bi for Stellar Models with Mzams = 1 to 25Msun and Z = 0.0001 to 0.02 text January 2017
Parameterizing the Supernova Engine and its Effects on Remnants and Basic Yields text January 2017
Linking 1D Evolutionary to 3D Hydrodynamical Simulations of Massive Stars text January 2016
New insights from cosmic gamma rays text January 2016

Linked Research (4)

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