Effect of Rotation on Wave Mixing in Intermediate-mass Stars

Abstract

Internal gravity waves are likely to cause mixing in stellar interiors. Studies show that the mixing by these waves changes drastically across age and mass. Here, we study the effect of rotation on this wave mixing by considering a 7 M _⊙ model at zero-age main sequence and mid-main sequence. We compare the mixing profiles at a range of rotation rates (1 × 10 ^−5 , 2 × 10 ^−5 , 3 × 10 ^−5 , 4 × 10 ^−5 , and 1 × 10 ^−4 rad s ^−1 ) and observe that the mixing decreases with decreasing Rossby number. This can be attributed to the effect of rotation on convection, which influences the amplitude with which the waves are excited near the convective–radiative interface.

Keywords

• Stellar evolution
• Hydrodynamics