Abstract
The radiative acceleration on iron inside stars may lead to an accumulation of this element in stellar internal layers. As discussed by several authors, this iron accumulation has many important consequences. It may lead to an extra convective zone, and in some cases it may help triggering stellar pulsations. However, the computations which have been done up to now ignore an important effect: the double-diffusive, or “thermohaline” convection induced by the inverse μ gradient. Detailed computations of all these processes have been introduced in the TGEC stellar evolution code. We show how thermohaline convection modifies the profiles of iron inside stars, with important consequences
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Theado, S., Vauclair, S. Radiative accelerations, accumulation of iron and thermohaline convection inside stars. Astrophys Space Sci 328, 209–212 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-009-0221-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-009-0221-5