[mesa-users] Dependence of EOS on mixture

[Ehsan Moravveji]

Hi Rich,
Based on the 1st instrument paper, the MESA EOS tables use the OPAL tables from Rogers & Nayfonov (2002) <http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/341894/pdf;jsessionid=FAE385221B5B75D90355602FFF1A9004.c3.iopscience.cld.iop.org>.
Figure 13 in this paper shows clearly how Gamma_1 varies just below the surface if you use a 6-element mixture vs. 14-element mixture. The difference is eye-catching. Interestingly, in the OPAL tables, Fe is not accounted for, while its abundance is quite comparable to C, N, O and Ne. Thus, it is obvious that changing to a different mixture with tiny little differences in individual metal abundances “could potentially” influence the structure (and seismic frequencies) to a considerable level. However, I am not sure if the effect of such assumptions on the structure are well quantified in the literature. Do you know?

Let me also ask a question from the users, a long the same line: The adiabatic temperature gradient, \nabla_ad, returned from MESA EOS module is computed at: 
(a) constant entropy and composition (i.e. X, Y, Z)? 
or
(b) constant entropy and mixture (i.e. X_i)?
This is critically important when computing the composition gradient, \nabla_\mu, because of the effect of partial ionisation. Looking at Eq. (5) in the 2nd instrument paper, let’s bet on (b), but it is always very informative to hear from the experts in the user list.

Best regards
Ehsan. 

> On 20 Oct 2015, at 15:49, Richard Townsend <rhtownsend at icloud.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi folks —
> 
> I believe the MESA EOS tables are calculated for one specific metal mixture. Has anyone ever examined the effect this might have on stellar structure, especially on the presence (or absence) of convection in partial ionization zones?
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Rich
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> mesa-users mailing list
> mesa-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mesa-users

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.mesastar.org/pipermail/mesa-users/attachments/20151027/f22263a6/attachment.html>