Chemical Mixing Induced by Internal Gravity Waves in Intermediate Mass Stars

A. Varghese, R. P. Ratnasingam, R. Vanon, P. V. F. Edelmann, T. M. Rogers

Published 2022-11-11Version 1

Internal gravity waves (IGWs) can cause mixing in the radiative interiors of stars. We study this mixing by introducing tracer particles into two - dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic simulations. Following the work of Rogers & McElwaine (2017), arXiv:1709.04920, we extend our study to different masses (3 M$_{\odot}$, 7 M$_{\odot}$ and 20 M$_{\odot}$) and ages (ZAMS, midMS and TAMS). The diffusion profiles of these models are influenced by various parameters such as the Brunt-V\"ais\"al\"a frequency, density, thermal damping, the geometric effect and the frequencies of waves contributing to these mixing profiles. We find that the mixing profile changes dramatically across age. In younger stars, we noted that the diffusion coefficient increases towards the surface, whereas in older stars the initial increase in the diffusion profile is followed by a decreasing trend. We also find that mixing is stronger in more massive stars. Hence, future stellar evolution models should include this variation. In order to aid the inclusion of this mixing in one-dimensional (1D) stellar evolution models, we determine the dominant waves contributing to these mixing profiles and present a prescription that can be included in 1D models.