Matteo Cantiello edited Clump.tex  about 10 years ago

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\subsection{Clump stars}\label{clump}  After reaching the tip of the red giant branch, stars with $M\lesssim 2\mso$ ignite He in a degenerate core. This leads to a large release of energy, called the He-flash, which during a period of about 2 Myr lifts the degeneracy of the core leading to a stable He-burning phase.   Such a  transition phase might leave an has a unique  asteroseismic signature, as suggested by \citet{2012ApJ...744L...6B}. signature \citep{2012ApJ...744L...6B}.    In our models during the He-flash the rotational period of the core increases quite rapidly by a factor of about 10. This is because the nuclear energy released results in core expansion. In our $1.5\mso$ model the $0.46 \mso$ core expands by approximately a factor of 3 during the He-flash, with core moment of inertia increasing by a factor of 10 from $I_{\rm c}=3.13\times10^{50} \GramSc$ to $I_{\rm c}=3.06\times10^{51} \GramSc$ \citep[See also][]{Kawaler:2005}, fully accounting for the spin down observed in the models (See Fig.~\ref{period_evolution}).  Even if the timescale of the He-flash is too short for angular momentum transport outside the core, we note that the convective episodes that accompany the He flash can potentially play an important role in the redistribution of angular momentum inside the He-core.  Such rapid mixing episode can change the rotational profile of the g-mode cavity, as they lead to a fairly rigidly rotating radiative region above core He-burning. Therefore the expectation is that that,  regardless of previous history of angular momentum transport,in  clump stars that underwent ignition of He in a degenerate coreg-modes  should propagate in a fairly be nearly  rigidly rotating region. rotating.  % two effects: %Double check this.  %\begin{enumerate} 

%\item A convective region develops above the location of He off-center ignition, resulting in a rapid mixing of angular momentum from the shear region into the %core.  %\end{enumerate}  After this rapid initial phase, the core rotation rate remains fairly constant during core He burning.   The clump stars in the \citet{Mosser:2012} sample rotatefairly slowly,  with periods in the range $P_{\rm c} \sim 30-240$ d. Isolated pulsating SdB stars show similar rotation rates, ranging from 23 to 88 d \citep[See e.g.][]{Baran:2012}. Similar to the case of the early RGB, these values are about 1 order of magnitude above the predictions of our slower than  models including which include  magnetic torques, again pointing toward the requirement need  for some extra angular momentum transport occurring in previous evolutionary phases. Note that models including an artificial diffusivity able to reproduce the observed splitting on the early RGB ($\nu \sim 10^4-10^5 \cms$) fail to explain the rotation rates of clump stars, with predicted rotation rates almost two orders of magnitude higher than the observations. This is because the torque required to couple core and envelope increases as the star rapidly  climbs the RGB, RGB.%  while the artificial diffusivity $\nu$ stays constant. We note that a combination of an artificial viscosity $\nu \sim 10^4-10^5 \cms$ with the Tayler-Spruit magnetic torques can reproduce both the early RGB and the clump observations. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CHECK PLOT %%%%%%%%%%%%%