[mesa-users] White Dwarf Mass Gain

[Pierre Lesaffre]

  Dear Eric,

  I would start by accreting C and O on a pure C/O white dwarf. This to 
avoid any complications at the surface. Even then you will probably get 
trouble evolving the growing convective core as the C burning luminosity 
increases. But I have not yet tried it myself with Mesa... so
  good luck !

Pierre.

On Wed, 29 Jun 
2011, Eric Blaney wrote:

> Dear Mesa-Users,
> 
> I have recently been attempting to use MESA to model accreted mass onto a White 
> Dwarf until it reaches it's chandresekar mass limit.  I'm simply wondering if it 
> is even possible, or if anyone has done this before using MESA and would share 
> any tips on how to successfully do so. 
> 
> 
> When I add mass onto White Dwarfs, it seems that that star becomes unstable once 
> hydrogen burning begins--reducing the timestep to mere minutes and the mass gain 
> rate jumps back and forth from, my normal input value, 10^-8 SolarMass/yr and 
> 10^-99.  If anyone has any idea how to fix these problems, if there even is a 
> solution, it would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Much thanks,
> 
> Eric
>