[Mesa-users] PPISN Model Stalling in MESA-r24.03.1

[Trang Huynh]

Dear all,

I am currently simulating a pulsational pair-instability supernova (PPISN) model using MESA-r24.03.1 and mesasdk version 24.7.1. The setup is a non-rotating, 100 M⊙ with  Z = 0 . My inlist and run_star_extras.f90 files are based on the ppisn test-suite included with this MESA release.

The problem is my model struggles to enter the pair-instability regime and consistently stalls during O-burning phase. I attempted increasing gold_tol_max_residual3 (from 1d-3 → 5d-3 → 5d-2), but the issue persists. Below is a snippet from the terminal output of the last retries:

Setting energy conservation error to zero until hydro is turned on for the first time
check gamma integral 3.6349043014391437E-002
max_residual > tol_max_residual 26835 5.1008342853913410D-03 5.0000000000000001D-03
solver rejected trial model
s% model_number 26835
s% solver_call_number 33067
nz 2861
s% num_retries 6530
dt 4.1498956078510518D-01
log dt/secyer -7.8810667950730071D+00
retry: max resid -- give up in solver 26835
residual_norm > tol_residual_norm 26835 1.0776741982634678D-06 9.9999999999999995D-07
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or best practices to help the model progress into the pair-instability phase. To facilitate feedback, I’ve attached the zip files with relevant inlist files, run_star_extras.f90, full terminal output, and mesa build.log.
Thank you in advance for your time and help!
Best,
Trang N. Huynh (she/her)
PhD Student
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Louisiana State University
thuyn27 at lsu.edu<mailto:thuyn27 at lsu.edu>



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