[Mesa-users] he_core_mass definition

[Gökhan Yücel]

Dear MESA users,

I have a weird problem/question about "he_core_mass" definition. What is the exact definition of this term? 

This is why I'm asking. I have been trying to see how much helium core is being created by hydrogen burning in single stars until TAMS, and binary stars until mass transfer. When I check my output files, I see that "he_core_mass" is 0 for a long time then it goes up from 0 to some small number, such as 0.24, then mass transfer begins. Since most of stars starts to burn their hydrogen to helium after immediately they enter the ZAMS, so this "he_core_mass" should be more than 0 in a very short time after the evolution star. So, what is this he_core_mass?

I attached a file that shows the change of "helium_core_mass" against time for a single star.  

Regards,
Gökhan
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