[Mesa-users] Using make_o_ne_wd to prepare some white dwarf models

[Josiah Schwab]

Hi Yi Hua,

Let me add a few quick things for some of your questions.

> Recently, I'd like to test some reactions associated with nova outbursts
> using MESA-r10398 and MESA-sdk (revision 245). [Hopefully, older MESA-sdk
> version won't affect the simulation.]

I don't understand how to interpret MESA SDK "revision 245".  But so
long as MESA compiles, using an older MESA SDK should not be a problem.
Results shouldn't vary between different SDKs.


> I ran the simulation again, but it stopped at
>
> model 840
> stopping because of problems -- too many retries
> terminated evolution: nonzero_ierr
> termination code: max_number_retries
>
> Perhaps, someone can identify the problem.

Most of the test suite cases have checks like

     ! check for retries and backups as part of test_suite
         max_number_backups = 8
         max_number_retries = 30
         max_model_number = 700

which helps the developers notice if MESA suddenly starts struggling
with a model that it use to evolve easily.

Once you start adapting the inlists to your own problem, you can
probably delete these lines.

> Although the HR diagram shown in Figure 1 of
> make_o_ne_wd/docs/make_o_ne_wd.pdf could not be reproduced, at least I can
> confirm that my installation is successful, and a partial HR diagram was
> produced from log Teff=3.9 up to 5.5 and log L/Ldot = 3.7 up to 4.5.

The PDF documentation of MESA is quite old at this point, so I would not
worry about exactly reproducing it.  (We still include it since it
describes why many of the tests exist.)  For tests like this one which
are demonstration of a MESA capability, some difference are not worrying.


> I do not think the problem is due to older MESA-SDK version. After that, I
> tested the make_o_ne_wd test_suite of MESA-r8118 with MESA-sdk (revision
> 245). This simulation ran successfully until it terminated with
> log_L_lower_limit. The produced HR diagram make_o_ne_wd (MESA-r8118) is not
> exactly the same as the partial HR diagram of MESA-r10398, in particular
> there is a kink from Teff=3.9 to 4.2 in the HR diagram of make_o_ne_wd of
> MESA-r8118 during the post-AGB stage. In fact, the HR diagram shown in
> Figure 1 of make_o_ne_wd.pdf also has that kink.
>
> As long as we can still produce a WD model eventually, shall we change some
> settings to eliminate/reduce such kink? [Question 1]

Those temperatures sound like they're around the opacity blends between
low and high T opacities.  Several opacity defaults changed between
r8118 and r10398, so I don't think those differences are to worrying.

If that part of the evolution is of interest to you, you may be able to
tune some opacity settings to eliminate it.


Hope that helps a bit,
Josiah