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Semi-convection: What Is the Underlying Physical Context?

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Studying Stellar Rotation and Convection

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 865))

Abstract

Stellar conditions leading to a possible semi-convective mixing are discussed in three relevant cases: (1) low-mass MS stars in which the CNO cycle takes progressively the lead over the PP chain due to the increase in temperature as core hydrogen burning proceeds, (2) massive MS stars which experience a large contribution of the radiation pressure to the total pressure, and (3) core-helium-burning stars for which the production of carbon in the core increases the opacity. A short discussion of semi-convection in terms of instability of non-radial modes follows.

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Correspondence to A. Noels .

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Noels, A. (2013). Semi-convection: What Is the Underlying Physical Context?. In: Goupil, M., Belkacem, K., Neiner, C., Lignières, F., Green, J. (eds) Studying Stellar Rotation and Convection. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 865. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33380-4_10

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