A&A 440, 981-994 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20053020
S. Talon1 - C. Charbonnel2,3
1 - Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal PQ H3C 3J7, Canada
2 - Observatoire de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
3 - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse et Tarbes, CNRS UMR 5572, OMP,
14 av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Received 8 March 2005 / Accepted 9 May 2005
Abstract
In this paper, we develop a formalism, in order to incorporate the contribution
of internal gravity waves to the transport of angular momentum and chemicals over
long time-scales in stars. We show that the development of a double-peaked shear layer acts as a filter for waves, and also how the asymmetry of this filter produces momentum extraction from the core when it is rotating faster than the surface. Using only this filtered flux, it is possible to follow the contribution of internal waves over long (evolutionary) time-scales.
We then present the evolution of the internal rotation profile using this formalism
for stars which are spun down via magnetic torquing. We show that waves tend to slow down the core, creating a "slow'' front that may then propagate from the core to the surface.
Further spin down of the surface leads to the formation of a new front.
Finally we show how this momentum transport reduces rotational mixing in a
,
Z=0.02 model, leading to a surface lithium abundance
in agreement with observations in the Hyades.
Key words: hydrodynamics - stars: evolution - turbulence - waves - stars: abundances
Stellar models are getting more and more sophisticated. In order to explain detailed observed features of stars in various places of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, modern stellar evolution codes must indeed incorporate several complex physical processes which are often referred to as "non-standard''. The main ones are:
These mechanisms affect evolutionary tracks, lifetimes, surface abundances, chemical yields, etc. Their impact on the stellar structure and evolution arises mainly from the redistribution of chemical elements that they cause, which is related (except in the case of atomic diffusion) to the induced redistribution of angular momentum inside the stars. During the last fifteen years, many studies have been devoted to describing the evolution of the angular momentum distribution because this pattern governs the extent of rotation-induced mixing in stellar interiors. For models in which the internal rotation law evolves under the effects of meridional circulation, shear mixing, horizontal turbulence, mass loss, contraction, and expansion (i.e., neglecting the transport by IGW and by magnetic fields), the main results can be summarized as follows:
Internal gravity waves have initially been invoked as a source of mixing for chemicals (Press 1981; García López & Spruit 1991; Schatzman 1993; Montalbán 1994; Montalbán & Schatzman 1996, 2000; Young et al. 2003). Ando (1986) studied the transport of momentum associated with standing gravity waves. He showed how momentum redistribution by these waves may increase the surface velocity to induce episodic mass-loss in Be stars. Goldreich & Nicholson (1989) used them later in order to explain the evolution of the velocity of binary stars, producing synchronization that proceeds from the surface to the core. Traveling internal gravity waves have since been invoked as an important process in the redistribution of angular momentum in single stars spun down by magnetic torquing (Schatzman 1993; Kumar & Quataert 1997; Zahn et al. 1997).
In a previous series of papers, we examined the generation of internal gravity waves by the surface convection zone of stars with various masses and metallicities. We found that these waves, which are able to extract angular momentum from the deep solar interior (Talon et al. 2002, hereafter TKZ), have a very peculiar mass (or more precisely effective temperature) dependence and could possibly dominate the transport of angular momentum in stars with deep enough convective envelope (Talon & Charbonnel 2003, 2004). We suggested that such a dependence could lead to a coherent picture of rotational mixing in stars of all masses at various evolution phases. It could, for example, simultaneously explain the cold side of the Li dip, as well as the solar rotation profile and the existence of fast rotating horizontal branch stars (see Talon & Charbonnel 2004, for more details).
An important characteristic of internal waves is that, unless they are damped, they conserve their angular momentum even when their local frequency is modified by Doppler shifting. This should be kept in mind when reading this paper. For a comprehensive review of gravity wave properties, we suggest consulting Bretherton (1969) and Zahn et al. (1997) for an application to the stellar, spherical case.
The other mechanism that has been invoked to enforce the Sun's flat rotation profile requires a pre-existing fossil magnetic field (Charbonneau & Mac Gregor 1993; Barnes et al. 1999). However, no mass dependence is expected in that case. This contradicts the Li dip constraint, although in this case this feature could be explained in purely solid body rotation by the combined action of solid body meridional circulation and radiative forces (see Charbonneau & Michaud 1988) and more importantly contradicts the large rotational velocities measured in some horizontal branch stars.
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Figure 1: Schematic view of the physical processes and their interactions involved in momentum redistribution by IGW. Complete calculations take all processes enclosed in the dashed box into account. |
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Let us also mention calculations of massive star models
by Maeder & Meynet (2003), in which the Taylor-Spruit dynamo (Spruit 1999, 2002), which is thought to be the most efficient dynamo mechanism in the radiative region, is included. When considered as is, this mechanism induces almost solid body rotation, efficiently reducing the extent of rotational mixing. It also leads to stellar models whose properties are
closer to those of standard models and thus in less agreement with
stellar observations. When reviewing the efficiency of this mechanism by taking
energy conservation into account, it is found that the dynamo is not
as efficient as first thought. In fact, calculations for a
star model show that adding the contribution of magnetic field only slightly modifies the results obtained with the
purely hydrodynamic models (Maeder & Meynet 2004; Maeder, private communication).
Let us recall that for such massive stars with no convective envelope
internal gravity waves cannot be produced efficiently and thus the present
rotating models would remain unchanged in our global picture
.
All these results and constraints obtained for stars covering a large fraction of the HR diagram strongly incite further studies of the combined effects of rotation and internal gravity waves in stars where these waves are known to be efficiently produced. Although they do not definitively disgrace magnetic fields, which certainly play a role in the complete picture, they offer sufficient arguments to justify complete tests of a fully hydrodynamical model before including MHD effects.
This is what we intend to do in the present series of papers, where we will investigate the combined and sometimes conflicting effects of rotation, internal waves, and atomic diffusion in low- and intermediate-mass stars at various stages of their evolution. We will present the first fully hydrodynamical stellar models that include the chemical and momentum redistribution by these three mechanisms self-consistently.
In the present paper we discuss the formalism that we use in the
hydrodynamical models to be presented here and in forthcoming studies.
A schematic view of all physical ingredients included and their interactions is
shown in Fig. 1. In Sect. 2, we first describe the prescription we follow for wave generation or excitation. Then in Sect. 3, we come back to the properties of the shear layer oscillation (or SLO) which builds up below the surface convection zone of the star
and on the momentum extraction by the waves in the radiative region.
We explain how an excited wave spectrum combined with the action of the SLO
may be replaced by a filtered spectrum and a diffusion coefficient, as illustrated in
Fig. 1. General equations for the transport of angular momentum and
chemicals are written in the global scheme (Sects. 4 and 5), which takes
momentum deposition into account beyond the shear layer and momentum transport
by meridional circulation and shear turbulence.
Then we recall some properties of the transport by waves using a static model
(Sect. 6). Finally we present the first results for a
,
Z=0.02 star computed within the complete physical framework (Sect. 7)
before concluding (Sect. 8).
Gravity waves are produced, among other things, by the injection of kinetic energy from a turbulent region to an adjacent stable region. This is observed, for example, at the border of clouds in the earth's atmosphere (Townsend 1965) and also in laboratory experiments (Townsend 1958). It should also occur in stars. This was already illustrated in the early (2D) numerical simulations of convection including penetration by Hurlburt et al. (1986, see also Hurlburt et al. 1994; Andersen 1994; Nordlund et al. 1996; Kiraga et al. 2000; Rogers & Glatzmeier 2005). There are two ways to excite those waves:
Kiraga et al. (2003) tried to evaluate the validity of the García López & Spruit approach by comparing the predictions of this model to a simulation of penetrative convection. The peak wave spectrum produced by the simulation was similar in amplitude to that of this parametric model. However, in the simulation modes were excited over a much broader range of frequencies and wavelengths. It is not clear whether this is related to the bi-dimensional nature of the simulation or to shortcomings in the model.
Internal gravity waves can also be excited in the convection zone itself. In that region, modes
are evanescent and their amplitude is proportional to
,
where kr is the radial wave number. Press (1981) used the formalism of Goldreich & Keeley (1977) to show that Reynolds-stress and buoyancy may excite gravity waves with a rather large amplitude at the bottom of the convection zone.
Goldreich & Kumar (1990) and Goldreich et al. (1994, GMK) completed the
Goldreich & Keeley formalism in order to apply it to solar p-modes. Their model quite
successfully reproduces the solar spectral energy input rate distribution,
provided one free parameter which describes the geometry of turbulent eddies is
calibrated. In that case, driving is dominated by entropy fluctuations.
Balmforth (1992) made a similar study, using a somewhat different formalism.
Subject to the calibration of a free parameter, he is also able to reproduce the spectral
energy distribution; however, it is the Reynolds-stress that is the main source of driving.
In the present study, we follow Kumar & Quataert (1997) and apply the GMK formalism to
traveling internal gravity waves. This was also used by Kumar et al. (1999),
TKZ, Talon & Charbonnel (2003, 2004). The energy flux per unit frequency
is then
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(2) |
The momentum flux per unit frequency
is then related to the energy flux by
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(3) |
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Figure 2:
Penetration of IGW into the convection zone of a ZAMS ![]() ![]() |
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Figure 3:
Behavior of the shear layer as a function of the diminishing viscosity
for a
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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It is now well established that the dissipation
of internal gravity waves in a differentially rotating region leads
to an increase in the local differential rotation.
In stellar models, this leads to the formation of
a narrow (1-2% in radius) doubled-peak oscillating
shear layer adjacent to the convection zone where they are produced
(Gough & McIntyre 1998; Ringot 1998; Kumar et al. 1999).
We shall refer to this process as "shear layer oscillation'' or SLO.
In a simple two-wave model, Kim & MacGregor (2001) examined the behavior of that layer, which depends on the ratio between viscosity and wave flux. If the viscosity is large, a stationary solution may be found. There then exists a bifurcation to an oscillatory behavior of the shear as viscosity is reduced. Further reduction leads to the appearance of chaos. The determination of the stellar viscosity is thus of key importance for the structure of this layer.
If only radiative viscosity is considered, one observes the formation of a very steep and narrow shear layer, and chaotic behavior is expected. However, as the local shear increases, it may lead to the appearance of a shear instability, which will enhance the local viscosity compared to its microscopic value. This process actually self-regulates the wave-mean flow interaction. Indeed, a larger wave flux leads to a larger differential rotation, which in turns acts to increase the local viscosity.
Several calculations were performed, using various prescriptions for the
turbulent viscosity. The first case-study should consist of simply using
the radiative viscosity.
It has the major advantage that it can be derived from first principles only.
However, this viscosity is so low compared to the wave flux that it rapidly leads to a slow
layer that is stopped and even begins to rotate backward. To prevent that, we will
consider a "turbulent'' viscosity proportional to the radiative viscosity
The turbulent viscosities used so far are not realistic. They vary only slowly with depth, and remain large even far from regions where a physical mechanism exists to produce this turbulence. We must thus find a reliable prescription in order to estimate the magnitude of turbulence on physical grounds.
The structure of the shear region points to the shear instability as an important source of
turbulence. Generally, its magnitude depends on the local shear rate and on the efficiency
of buoyancy, which acts as a restoring force. When taking radiative losses into account
(Townsend 1958; Dudis 1974; Lignières et al. 1999) along with the effect of horizontal turbulence on the stabilizing effect of mean molecular weight gradients
(Talon & Zahn 1997), the viscous turbulence may be approximated by
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Figure 4: ( Left) Shear layer evolution (successive profiles are separated by 1 year) and ( right) average turbulent viscosity (as described in Sect. 3.1). The dashed line corresponds to an analytical fit (cf. Eq. (17)). |
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Figure 5:
Wave characteristics below the shear layer for a differential rotation
of
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In this framework, the magnitude of the shear layer is self-regulated. An increase in the wave flux leads to an increased differential rotation and thus, an increase of the shear turbulence.
Calculations are shown here for a
,
Z=0.02 model. Figure 4 shows the
evolution of the shear layer, as well as the self-consistent turbulent viscosity induced in
the model. In this model, thermal diffusion is rather large (see Talon & Charbonnel 2003).
This explains the high value for the turbulent coefficient and also its extreme thinness.
In lower mass stars, while just below the convection zone
the viscosity is large enough to lead to a regular oscillating layer, it then decreases rapidly
in the interior, leading to a complex layer structure that has a chaotic behavior.
However, this has no particular impact on long-term momentum extraction.
This turbulence is generated by wave momentum deposition due to radiative damping, and is related to turbulence produced by large amplitude waves where they are dissipated (Press 1981; Canuto 2002; Young et al. 2003). It is quite different in essence from the turbulent diffusion generally associated with waves, either due to wave breaking (Press 1981; García López & Spruit 1991) or to irreversible second order motions (Press 1981; Schatzman 1993; Montalbán 1994). This issue will be discussed further in Sect. 5.
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Figure 6:
( Top) Instantaneous rotation profile. ( Middle, bottom) Instantaneous damping length (corresponding to a reduction of wave amplitude A=A0/e)
for wave frequencies of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Figure 7:
Local deposition of angular momentum for various values of differential rotation. The rotation profile rises linearly between the base of the convection zone and
(1-m/M)=-2.85 by a value of
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The superficial shear layer acts as a filter on internal gravity waves (Gough & McIntyre 1998). Indeed, as internal waves travel across first a "rapid'' and then a "slow'' layer, prograde and retrograde waves, respectively, are preferentially damped. However, some of the power remains in the lowest order waves, and over long time-scales (on the order of evolutionary time-scales), momentum redistribution below the shear layer cannot be neglected (TKZ). Figure 5 illustrates wave characteristics below the shear layer for a given differential rotation, with the convection zone rotating slower than the radiative zone. The two top rows compare the amplitude of retrograde and prograde waves. As shown in the third panel, the retrograde waves are somewhat less damped then their prograde counterparts, which leads to a net luminosity of momentum, illustrated in the bottom panel. As explained in TKZ this is because the underlying differential rotation produces a prograde layer which, on average, is always larger than the retrograde layer.
It is the low frequency, low degree waves that give the largest contribution
to momentum redistribution in the interior; high degree waves are damped closer to the
convection zone (as damping
)
and thus have an
intrinsically small amplitude below the shear layer,
while high frequency waves experience less differential damping (
), crucial to produce a net momentum deposition
(see Fig. 6). See Sect. 4 for details on damping.
In order to build evolutionary stellar models, it is not possible to follow the behavior of the oscillating shear layer in details, because it occurs on time-scales of years or tens of years. However, this shear layer is crucial in filtering the low order waves that travel through it. The net wave flux across the shear layer depends of the asymmetry of the filter and thus on the difference between the rotation velocity below the shear layer and that of the convection zone. Let us note, however, that the thickness of the oscillating layer is independent of this asymmetry. Last but not least, wave momentum transport does not have a diffusive behavior and as such must not be treated merely as a turbulent diffusion process.
Figure 6 illustrates differential damping in
a shear region, with both a "rapid'' and a
"slow'' layer. The m=0 mode is not affected by the differential rotation, and, for a given frequency,
the damping length
is inversely proportional to
.
The "rapid'' layer increases the damping of prograde modes and reduces it for
the retrograde modes. The reverse is obtained from the "slow'' layer.
Figure 7 shows the local momentum deposition for various values of
differential rotation. As long as differential rotation is not too large, momentum
deposition varies linearly with
.
Actual calculations of the evolution of
the distribution of angular momentum show that, for realistic values of braking
(according to Kawaler 1988), the star remains in this linear regime.
It has been shown elsewhere (Kumar & Quataert 1997; Zahn et al. 1997,
TKZ) that gravity waves can carry enough angular momentum to slow
the radiative zone of low mass stars down on time-scales of order 107 years.
One may wonder, however, if the deposition of energy by waves may have an impact on the stellar
structure. Let us first begin by comparing the amount of energy contained in gravity waves
with other quantities. This will be done here for a ZAMS
model.
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Figure 8:
Filtered momentum luminosity spectrum for the ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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The total energy luminosity in waves is approximately
,
while the total
luminosity at the base of the convection zone is 2.5
,
of which a large part is convective (see Fig. 2). The wave luminosity thus represents
about 0.01% of the convective luminosity.
Let us next look at the amount of kinetic energy that is stored in rotation .
We have
with I the moment of inertia of the star. For the whole star,
it is about
.
For an initial rotation velocity of
,
this leads to an energy of
.
As the star is spun down, this energy
must be dissipated and will be added to the thermal energy.
However, the total rotation energy is two orders of magnitude lower than the thermal
content and so, the impact will be negligible on the stellar structure.
Gravity waves lead to two different features that must be incorporated in stellar evolution codes:
The net momentum luminosity spectrum below the shear layer for various masses is shown
in Fig. 8. To obtain the net momentum deposition, one must follow the local
momentum luminosity
When meridional circulation, turbulence, and waves are all taken into account,
the evolution of angular momentum thus follows
In most hydrodynamical models, chemicals evolve under the action of meridional circulation,
turbulence, and atomic diffusion. All these topics are discussed
elsewhere (see e.g. Talon 2004, and references therein for a discussion of
rotational mixing, and Turcotte et al. 1998, and references therein
for a review of microscopic diffusion processes).
However, when including gravity waves in momentum transport, one must also
include their direct contribution to the transport of chemical
species.
This subject has received attention from several authors and here we
describe the main mechanisms involved.
The first process is the turbulence generated in the shear layer by shear instability. In a first step, energy is transfered by waves from the convection zone to the shear layer and stored in differential rotation, which can then be converted to turbulence by the shear instability. This view is similar to the idea of Canuto (2002) that gravity waves act as a source term in the equation that describes turbulence. This is also similar to the mixing described by Young et al. (2003). In our framework, turbulent diffusion is evaluated by taking the average of Eq. (5) over several SLO.
Weak mixing can also be induced by second order mass-transport effects in a diffusive medium (Press 1981; Schatzman 1993; Montalbán 1994). A diffusion coefficient can then be associated with wave dissipation by combining the average wave velocity and the average damping length of waves. If the concomitant transport of angular momentum is taken into account, the damping length of waves is reduced and the effect is to somewhat lower the size of the region over which this process is efficient. The thickness of the shear layer should, in many instances, replace the damping length calculated in the case of solid body rotation. Differential rotation thus reduces the extent of this effect; its magnitude is at maximum of the same order as turbulence induced by the SLO. Considering the uncertainties in wave fluxes, as well as on the mixing induced by those motions, we suggest ignoring this effect altogether.
Finally, in certain circumstances, wave amplitude can rise to the point of
becoming non-linear and inducing shear-mixing (Press 1981; García López
& Spruit 1991). The non-linearity is given by
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(10) |
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(11) |
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Figure 9:
Evolution of the rotation profile in the case of very strong
and moderate initial differential rotation in a ![]() |
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Before we apply our filtered wave model to an evolutionary calculation,
let us continue to discuss the results obtained by TKZ in the case of a static model. They
are based on a rather small differential rotation and use a given wave spectrum.
It is worth verifying how sensitive those results are to other initial profiles
or to different distributions of energy.
In the models presented in this section, we show results obtained for small time steps
(of 1 year, as in TKZ), following the details of the shear layer oscillation. The only other process for momentum transport that is considered here is shear turbulence, and no surface braking is
applied. In contrast to the TKZ
study, here turbulence is directly related to the local shear rate (cf. Eq. (5)).
Let us discuss some more results presented in Sect. 3.2. In
Fig. 9, we compare the evolution of the rotation profile in cases
of very strong and moderate
differential rotation. Momentum extraction from the core is clearly visible in both cases. The core's slow rotation slowly propagates toward the surface. It does so with a velocity that gets smaller as the front progresses to a region where the local angular momentum (
r2) is larger. Differential rotation at the core boundary remains larger than in TKZ because the local turbulence
is smaller
. The
important point is that in the presence of a large differential
rotation, the local frequency of retrograde waves becomes very large, and their
damping is largely reduced in the inner regions. However, once the core has been
spun down, which is easily done since it contains very little momentum, a "slow'' front can propagate toward the surface.
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Figure 10:
Evolution of the rotation profile with moderate initial differential rotation for
a wave spectrum derived from GMK spectrum (cf. Eq. (1)) and
for a flat spectrum with the same total energy flux. Calculations are made in a ![]() |
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Another delicate point is the form of the wave spectrum. As mentioned (Sect. 2), the exact spectrum produced by turbulence in the convection zone is not well constrained, and various analytical and numerical studies lead to different prescriptions. It is thus important to understand how modifying the spectrum influences the results. Figure 10 illustrates this comparison. The flat spectrum produces a front that migrates somewhat faster, but deposits less momentum in the intermediate region. In that case, the shear layer does not oscillate, but still produces a filter that preferentially damps prograde waves. While the exact spectrum changes the results quantitatively, qualitatively global effects are similar.
General inputs for stellar physics
Stellar models are computed with the stellar evolution code STAREVOL
(Forestini 1991; Siess et al. 1997, 2000; Palacios et al. 2003).
Our equation of state follows the Pols et al. (1995) formalism. Thermodynamical features of each plasma component (ions, electrons, photons and
)
are obtained by minimizing the Helmholtz free energy that includes
non-ideal effects separately, and allows ionization to be treated analytically,
leading to smooth profiles for thermodynamical quantities. Radiative opacities
are taken from Alexander & Fergusson (1994) below 8000 K and from
Iglesias & Rogers (1996) at higher temperatures.
Our nuclear reaction network follows 53 species (from
to
)
through 180 reactions. Nuclear reaction rates have been updated with the NACRE compilation (Angulo et al. 1999). Convection is treated according to the mixing length formalism with
.
No overshooting is considered.
Rotation
We follow the evolution of the rotation profile from the zero age main sequence on,
assuming initial solid body rotation. The surface rotation velocity on the ZAMS is
taken equal to
.
Surface spin-down follows
Kawaler (1988) including saturation at
(or
)
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(12) |
IGW
To incorporate IGW, we first calculate filtered luminosities
(cf. Fig. 8) for fixed differential rotations (
)
in static ZAMS
models
.
The wave luminosity below the surface convection zone is then
linearly interpolated from those tables for the actual differential rotation
just below the shear layer. The local momentum luminosity is obtained by calculating the damping
integral for each individual wave (cf. Eq. (7))
and then summing over all waves (cf. Eq. (6)).
Meridional circulation
Meridional circulation is treated as an advection process
for the transport of angular momentum,
assuming strong horizontal turbulence and following Zahn (1992).
Turbulence and diffusion
Turbulence is assumed to be strongly anisotropic, and everywhere we assume
that turbulent diffusion is equal to the turbulent viscosity.
The vertical component of the turbulent viscosity
Horizontal turbulence follows Zahn (1992)
Transport of chemicals
For chemicals, the combination of meridional circulation and horizontal turbulence
results in a vertical effective diffusion
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(15) |
Atomic diffusion driven by gravitational settling and thermal gradients is included using the formulation of Paquette et al. (1986).
The evolution of an element ci then follows
Wave-induced turbulence is treated explicitly through coefficient
that we assume is equal to the coefficient
which enters Eq. (9).
To evaluate this coefficient, we perform a time average of the diffusion coefficient associated with the local shear instability (Eq. (13)) over several SLOs (see Fig. 4, and Sect. 3.1). For evolutionary calculations, we use an analytical fit to this curve.
In this application to a
star, we use
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(18) |
Let us concentrate on the evolution of the rotation profile when momentum deposition by IGW is taken into account in conjunction with shear turbulence and meridional circulation. Here, the short time-scale SLO is present only as a filter; the magnitude of the wave flux depends on the amount of differential rotation between the base of the convection zone and a region just below the SLO (see Sect. 3.2). In quasi-solid body rotation (with the surface rotating slightly slower because of braking), low degree waves penetrate all the way to the stellar core and are damped (and thus deposit their negative momentum) over the whole radiative region. However, since the amount of angular momentum contained in the radiative core is minute, the local deposition of even a small amount of momentum is enough to spin it down significantly. In a "slow'' region, damping of retrograde waves increases (cf. Eqs. (7) and (8)), which leads to the formation of a "front'', which then propagates from the core to the surface. The propagation of a first front is seen in Fig. 11 (curves at 0.2, 0.25, 0.3 and 0.35 Gyr). A second front evolves from 0.4 to the 0.7 Gyr curves.
At the age of the Hyades, differential rotation is considerably reduced. In particular, it is of interest to compare calculations that include and do not include waves. In the second case (left plot in Fig. 12), the amount of differential rotation at the age of the Hyades is very large. This agrees with the results obtained in the solar case by Matias & Zahn (1998), who performed calculations under the same hypothesis as here, and by Chaboyer et al. (1995) who approximated meridional circulation as a diffusive process.
The present complete model confirms the ability of gravity waves to efficiently extract angular momentum from the deep interior of solar-type stars, and shows how the momentum redistribution proceeds when the stars are spun down via magnetic torquing. Let us now investigate the consequences on meridional circulation and shear turbulence and on the Li depletion due to rotational mixing.
Figure 13 presents profiles of the vertical component of the meridional
velocity U at 0.5 Gyr in the
models with and without gravity waves.
When not including waves, there are two circulation loops. The meridional velocity
is negative in the external part of the radiative zone down to
0.3 M*.
This meridian loop brings matter upward at the equator and down in the
polar regions, in response to the extraction of angular momentum due to braking.
Deeper the circulation is positive (bold line), indicating an inward transport of
angular momentum. When internal waves are taken into account, several loops of circulation appear,
with negative and positive loops (light and bold lines respectively) alternating.
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Figure 11:
Evolution of the rotation profile in a complete model where the transport
of angular momentum is due to internal gravity waves, meridional circulation
and turbulence. The model shown is for a
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Figure 12: Same as Fig. 11 for 0.2, 0.5, and 0.7 Gyr in a case without ( left) and with ( right) internal gravity waves included. The time sequence goes from the highest to the smallest surface velocity |
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These differences directly reflect in the transport coefficients that are shown at the same age (0.5 Gyr) in Figs. 14 and 15. Details in the profiles vary with time but this is a typical illustration. Strong variations (i.e. peaks and gaps) in the profiles of both effective and total diffusion coefficients reflect the presence of several circulation loops, each drop corresponding to an inversion of the flow direction. When gravity waves are included, the amplitude of these coefficients is reduced and vertical turbulence (Dv) is less developed than in the pure rotating models because of the decrease in the overall differential rotation.
In Fig. 15, the wave-induced turbulence (
)
used in the present simulation with IGW and given by Eq. (17) is also shown.
As can be seen, this coefficient drops very rapidly below the convection envelope
and is much smaller than the total diffusion coefficient coming from rotation
except very close to the convection region.
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Figure 13:
Profiles of the vertical component of the meridional velocity
in a
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Figure 14:
Comparison of the transport coefficients in a
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Figure 15:
Total diffusion coefficient in a
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Our goal in the present paper is not to make a detailed comparison of the
model predictions with all the observable constraints that come from
abundance anomalies in stars. This will be done in forthcoming studies.
We wish, however, to illustrate briefly the behavior of 4He
and 7Li in our
rotating model including gravity waves.
The case of 4He is related to possible impact on the overall evolution
and lifetimes, and in addition it illustrates the interaction with
atomic diffusion. On the other hand, 7Li is a fragile element which
helps to probe the status of the external stellar layers.
The 4He profile at the age of the Hyades is shown in Fig. 16
for both the complete model and the model without IGW.
One sees two effects there. First, at this age, the model with IGW
is slightly less evolved (i.e. it has a lower central 4He content).
Second, its 4He surface abundance is slightly lower and the 4He gradient just below the convection envelope is slightly steeper. This is due to the lower amplitude of the total diffusion coefficient in the models including waves, which allows 4He to settle more
under the effect of atomic diffusion.
One sees here that
has a negligible effect on
the 4He behavior and does not compensate for the decrease in the
total diffusion coefficient in the external part of the radiative zone.
The best observational constraints available to test our predictions
are the Li data in open clusters. As discussed in Sect. 1, models
in which the transport of angular momentum is carried out only by
meridional circulation and turbulence fail to reproduce the rise of
the Li abundance on the right side of the Li dip. This is confirmed
in the present model without IGW, which lies in this region and has an effective
temperature of
at the age of the Hyades. As can be seen in Fig. 17, the 7Li surface abundance in this model (dotted line) is
one order of magnitude smaller than the Li value in stars of 6220
in the Hyades, which is indicated by the box.
For the model including IGW (full line), the magnitude of both meridional circulation
and turbulence is reduced. Consequently 7Li is less destroyed and
our prediction accounts nicely for the data.
Note that the surface lithium decrease in these stars is not
dominated by atomic diffusion, but still by the (reduced, compared to the case without IGW) rotational transport of this element down to regions where it is nuclearly destroyed.
Again, the effect of
is negligible.
In a forthcoming paper, we will present models of Pop I stars with various initial masses and initial rotation rates and compare the Li predictions in detail on the red side of the Li dip with observations in open cluster and field stars.
![]() |
Figure 16:
4He profile at the age of the Hyades in the complete model (full line)
and in the model without the IGW (dashed line)
for a
![]() |
Open with DEXTER |
![]() |
Figure 17:
7Li profile at the age of the Hyades in the complete model (full line)
and in the model without the IGW (dashed line) for a
![]() ![]() |
Open with DEXTER |
In this paper, we examined how it is possible to include all
the effects of internal gravity
waves in evolutionary calculations. The main challenge is that IGW tend to produce a thin
shear layer that oscillates on a very small time-scale. Talon et al. (2002) show that this
shear layer oscillation (or SLO) acts as a filter for waves, being more transparent to waves
that will reduce the differential rotation between the convection and the radiation zones. We
verified that this filter is linear in
,
and as such, details of the SLO need not
be considered for variations occurring over long time-scales.
We also presented the first evolution model that includes the hydrodynamical processes
induced by rotation and internal gravity waves. We focused on a
,
Z=0.02
star that lies on the red side of the Li dip (
at 0.7 Gyr).
For the rotation profile, IGW lead to the appearance of a "slow'' front, propagating from the core to the surface. When the outer convection zone is constantly spun down, several fronts propagate;
this propagation is very rapid at the beginning because differential rotation is large, and
slows down with time.
For the evolution of chemicals, Talon & Charbonnel (1998) expected IGW to reduce rotational mixing together with differential rotation. This effect is confirmed in this first fully consistent study. The surface of the Li abundance in our complete model is in perfect agreement with the data in the Hyades stars of similar effective temperature.
Let us remind the reader that, while the formalism presented in this paper is quite general and allows one to properly include IGW in complete hydrodynamical stellar models, several uncertainties remain. First, a very delicate issue is that of IGW generation. The GMK model most certainly underestimates the wave flux since it considers only bulk excitation, and not overshooting or convective penetration. However, since wave generation has to be proportional to the convective luminosity, differential properties between different stellar types should vary less. We thus expect the wave flux to be larger than calculated, but by a similar amount in each stellar type. Complete studies for different stellar types should permit us to calibrate this amount, so it could then be used uniformly.
The second uncertainty is the exact value for the turbulent
viscosity to use in the SLO (
,
Eq. (17)). Here, we estimated a viscosity
based on the shear instability and assumed a small amount of enlargement and averaging in order
for the turbulent viscosity not to be too local. However, this model has only a rather small
impact on numerical results since in all cases it remains very localized below the
convection zone.
The last point to bear in mind is that no latitudinal dependence is considered here, as only a horizontal average is used. In order to be able to take this dependence into account, observational data of latitudinal differential rotation in stars other than the Sun must be obtained.
Results for the evolution of the rotation profile and for the lithium abundance presented in this paper are very encouraging and should now be compared to the data for stars of various masses, metallicities, and ages, as is planned for forthcoming studies.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Pr. André Maeder and Dr. Georges Meynet for discussion of gravity wave energetics, and thank our referee for constructive comments. We are grateful to the French "Programme National de Physique Stellaire'' for financial support. Part of the calculations were performed on computers belonging to the Réseau Québécois de Calcul de Haute Performance (RQCHP). C.C. was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.