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Enhanced rotational mixing in the radiative zones of massive stars

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Jermyn, AS 
Tout, CA 
Chitre, SM 

Abstract

Convection in the cores of massive stars becomes anisotropic when they rotate. This anisotropy leads to a misalignment of the thermal gradient and the thermal flux, which in turn results in baroclinicity and circulation currents in the upper radiative zone. We show that this induces a much stronger meridional flow in the radiative zone than previously thought. This drives significantly enhanced mixing, though this mixing does not necessarily reach the surface. The extra mixing takes on a similar form to convective overshooting, and is relatively insensitive to the rotation rate above a threshold, and may help explain the large overshoot distances inferred from observations. This has significant consequences for the evolution of these stars by enhancing core-envelope mixing.

Description

Keywords

stars - evolution, stars - interiors, stars - rotation

Journal Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0035-8711
1365-2966

Volume Title

480

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)