C. C. Lovekin

Illuminating the Primeval Universe with Type IIn Supernovae

The detection of Population III (Pop III) supernovae (SNe) could directly probe the primordial initial mass function for the first time, unveiling the properties of the first galaxies, early chemical enrichment and reionization, and the seeds of supermassive black holes. Growing evidence that some Pop III stars were less massive than 100 M ☉ may complicate prospects for their detection, because even though they would have been more plentiful, they would have died as core-collapse SNe, with far less luminosity than pair-instability explosions. This picture greatly improves if the SN shock collides with a dense circumstellar shell ejected during a prior violent luminous blue variable type eruption. Such collisions can turn even dim SNe into extremely bright ones whose luminosities can rival those of pair-instability SNe. We present simulations of Pop III Type IIn SN light curves and spectra performed with the Los Alamos RAGE and SPECTRUM codes. Taking into account Lyα absorption in the early universe and cosmological redshifting, we find that 40 M ☉ Pop III Type IIn SNe will be visible out to z ~ 20 with the James Webb Space Telescope and out to z ~ 7 with WFIRST. Thus, even low mass Pop III SNe can be used to probe the primeval universe.

Radial and nonradial oscillation modes in rapidly rotating stars

We use two-dimensional stellar models and a two-dimensional finite difference integration of the linearized pulsation equations to calculate nonradial oscillations. This approach allows us to directly calculate the pulsation modes for a distorted rotating star without treating the rotation as a perturbation. We are also able to express the finite difference solution in the horizontal direction as a sum of multiple spherical harmonics for any given mode. Using these methods, we have investigated the effects of increasing rotation and the number of spherical harmonics on the calculated eigenfrequencies and eigenfunctions and compared the results to perturbation theory. We use 10 M? models with velocities ranging from 0 to 420 km s?1 ( -->0.89?c) and examine low-order p-modes. We find that one spherical harmonic remains reasonable up to a rotation rate around 300 km s?1 ( -->0.69?c) for the radial fundamental mode, but can fail at rotation rates as low as 90 km s?1 ( -->0.23?c) for the -->l = 2 p2 mode, based on the eigenfrequencies alone. Depending on the mode in question, a single spherical harmonic may fail at lower rotation rates if the shape of the eigenfunction is taken into consideration. Perturbation theory, in contrast, remains valid up to relatively high rotation rates for most modes. We find the lowest failure surface equatorial velocity is 120 km s?1 ( -->0.30?c) for the -->l = 2 p2 mode, but failure velocities between 240 and 300 km s?1 ( -->0.58?c?0.69?c) are more typical.

Surface Temperature and Synthetic Spectral Energy Distributions for Rotationally Deformed Stars

Extreme deformation of a stellar surface, such as that produced by rapid rotation, causes the surface temperature and gravity to vary significantly with latitude. Thus, the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a nonspherical star could differ significantly from the SED of a spherical star with the same average temperature and luminosity. Calculation of the SED of a deformed star is often approximated as a composite of several spectra, each produced by a plane-parallel model of given effective temperature and gravity. The weighting of these spectra over the stellar surface, and hence the inferred effective temperature and luminosity, will be dependent on the inclination of the rotation axis of the star with respect to the observer, as well as the temperature and gravity distribution on the stellar surface. Here we calculate the surface conditions of rapidly rotating stars with a two-dimensional stellar structure and evolution code and compare the effective temperature distribution to that predicted by von Zeipels law. We calculate the composite spectrum for a deformed star by interpolating within a grid of intensity spectra of plane-parallel model atmospheres and integrating over the surface of the star. This allows us to examine the SED for effects of inclination and degree of deformation based on the two-dimensional models. Using this method, we find that the deduced variation of effective temperature with inclination can be as much as 3000 K for an early B star, depending on the details of the underlying model. As a test case for our models, we examine the rapidly rotating star Achernar (α Eri, HD 10144). Recent interferometric observations have determined the star to be quite oblate. Combined with the ultraviolet SED measured by the OAO 2 satellite, we are able to make direct comparisons with observations.

EFFECTS OF UNIFORM AND DIFFERENTIAL ROTATION ON STELLAR PULSATIONS

We have investigated the effects of uniform rotation and a specific model for differential rotation on the pulsation frequencies of 10 M ☉ stellar models. Uniform rotation decreases the frequencies for all modes. Differential rotation does not appear to have a significant effect on the frequencies, except for the most extreme differentially rotating models. In all cases, the large and small separations show the effects of rotation at lower velocities than do the individual frequencies. Unfortunately, to a certain extent, differential rotation mimics the effects of more rapid rotation, and only the presence of some specific observed frequencies with well identified modes will be able to uniquely constrain the internal rotation of pulsating stars.

Determination of effective temperatures and luminosities for rotating stars

Spectral energy distributions for models of arbitrarily rotating stars are computed using two-dimensional rotating stellar models, NLTE plane-parallel model atmospheres, and a code to integrate the appropriately weighted intensities over the visible surface of the stellar disk. The spectral energy distributions depend on the inclination angle between the observer and the rotation axis of the model. We use these curves to deduce what one would infer the models luminosity and effective temperature to be assuming the object was nonrotating.

Cross-code comparisons of mixing during the implosion of dense cylindrical and spherical shells

We present simulations of the implosion of a dense shell in two-dimensional (2D) spherical and cylindrical geometry performed with four different compressible, Eulerian codes: RAGE, FLASH, CASTRO, and PPM. We follow the growth of instabilities on the inner face of the dense shell. Three codes employed Cartesian grid geometry, and one (FLASH) employed polar grid geometry. While the codes are similar, they employ different advection algorithms, limiters, adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) schemes, and interface-preservation techniques. We find that the growth rate of the instability is largely insensitive to the choice of grid geometry or other implementation details specific to an individual code, provided the grid resolution is sufficiently fine. Overall, all simulations from different codes compare very well on the fine grids for which we tested them, though they show slight differences in small-scale mixing. Simulations produced by codes that explicitly limit numerical diffusion show a smaller amount of small-scale mixing than codes that do not. This difference is most prominent for low-mode perturbations where little instability finger interaction takes place, and less prominent for high- or multi-mode simulations where a great deal of interaction takes place, though it is still present. We present RAGE and FLASH simulations to quantify the initial perturbation amplitude to wavelength ratio at which metrics of mixing agree across codes, and find that bubble/spike amplitudes are converged for low-mode and high-mode simulations in which the perturbation amplitude is more than 1% and 5% of the wavelength of the perturbation, respectively. Other metrics of small-scale mixing depend on details of multi-fluid advection and do not converge between codes for the resolutions that were accessible.

Pulsations as a driver for LBV variability

Among the most spectacular variable stars are the Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), which can show three types of variability. The LBV phase of evolution is poorly understood, and the driving mechanisms for the variability are not known. The most common type of variability, the S Dor instability, occurs on timescales of tens of years. During an S Dor outburst, the visual magnitude of the star increases, while the bolometric magnitude stays approximately constant. In this work, we investigate pulsation as a possible trigger for the S Dor type outbursts. We calculate the pulsations of envelope models using a nonlinear hydrodynamics code including a time-dependent convection treatment. We initialize the pulsation in the hydrodynamic model based on linear non-adiabatic calculations. Pulsation properties for a full grid of models from 20 to 85 M

Mass-loss in 2D zero-age main-sequence stellar models

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2-D and 3-D Models of Convective Turbulence and Oscillations in Intermediate-Mass Main-Sequence Stars

were calculated, and in this paper we focus on the few models that show either long-period pulsations or outburst-like behaviour, with photospheric radial velocities reaching 70-80 km/s. At the present time, our models cannot follow mass loss, so once the outburst event begins, our simulations are terminated. Our results show that pulsations alone are not able to drive enough surface expansion to eject the outer layers. However, the outbursts and long-period pulsations discussed here produce large variations in effective temperature and luminosity, which are expected to produce large variations in the radiatively driven mass-loss rates.

Rotating Stars Toolkit

A large number of massive stars are known to rotate, resulting in significant distortion and variation in surface temperature from the pole to the equator. Radiatively driven mass loss is temperature dependent, so rapid rotation produces variation in mass loss and angular momentum loss rates across the surface of the star, which is expected to affect the evolution of rapidly rotating massive stars. In this work, we investigate the two dimensional effects of rotation on radiatively driven mass loss and the associated loss of angular momentum in ZAMS models with solar metallicity. Using 2D stellar models, which give the variation in surface parameters as a function of co-latitude, we implement two different mass loss prescriptions describing radiatively driven mass loss. We find a significant variation in mass loss rates and angular momentum loss as a function of co-latitude. We find that the mass loss rate decreases as the rotation rate increases for models at constant initial mass, and derive scaling relations based on these models. When comparing 2D to 1D mass loss rates, we find that although the total angle integrated mass loss does not differ significantly, the 2D models predict less mass loss from the equator and more mass loss from the pole than the 1D predictions using von Zeipels law. As a result, rotating models lose less angular momentum in 2D than in 1D, which will change the subsequent evolution of the star. The evolution of these models will be investigated in future work.