Towards 21st Century Stellar Models: Star Clusters, Supercomputing, and Asteroseismology

Abstract

Stellar models provide a vital basis for many aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. Recent advances in observational astronomy -- through asteroseismology, precision photometry, high-resolution spectroscopy, and large-scale surveys -- are placing stellar models under greater quantitative scrutiny than ever. The model limitations are being exposed and the next generation of stellar models is needed as soon as possible. The current uncertainties in the models propagate to the later phases of stellar evolution, hindering our understanding of stellar populations and chemical evolution. Here we give a brief overview of the evolution, importance, and substantial uncertainties of core helium burning stars in particular and then briefly discuss a range of methods, both theoretical and observational, that we are using to advance the modelling.

To appear in Astronomische Nachrichten, special issue "Reconstruction the Milky Way's History: Spectroscopic surveys, Asteroseismology and Chemo-dynamical models", Guest Editors C. Chiappini, J. Montalbán, and M. Steffen, AN 2016 (in press)

References in corpus (10)

• The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. Overview and Clusters Without Previous HST Photometry
• Mixed modes in red giants: a window on stellar evolution
• Beyond Mixing-length Theory: a step toward 321D
• Na-O Anticorrelation and HB. II. The Na-O anticorrelation in the globular cluster NGC 6752
• Uncertainties on near-core mixing in red-clump stars: effects on the period spacing and on the luminosity of the AGB bump
• On the proper use of the Schwarzschild and Ledoux criteria in stellar evolution computations
• Toward a consistent use of overshooting parametrizations in 1D stellar evolution codes
• The treatment of mixing in core helium burning models -- II. Constraints from cluster star counts
• On the missing second generation AGB stars in NGC6752
• The growth of helium burning cores

Cited by in corpus (5)

• One-, Two-, and Three-dimensional Simulations of Oxygen Shell Burning Just Before the Core-Collapse of Massive Stars
• The treatment of mixing in core helium burning models -- III. Suppressing core breathing pulses with a new constraint on overshoot
• Three-dimensional Hydrodynamics Simulations of Precollapse Shell Burning in the Si- and O-rich Layers
• NGC 6752 AGB Stars Revisited: I. Improved AGB temperatures remove apparent overionisation of Fe I
• Uncertainties in AGB Evolution and Nucleosynthesis