TAPIR Seminar

Hybrid

In person: 370 Cahill -- Attendees joining in person must have a valid Caltech UID.

To Join via Zoom: https://caltech.zoom.us/j/89695722750

Abstract: Stars with masses greater than about 1.1 M_sun have turbulent convection in their cores. "Standard" stellar evolution models without excess mixing beyond the boundary of the convection zone fail to reproduce many observations. In this seminar, I will present a review of the observations of excess mixing in the cores of massive stars. I will discuss how excess mixing affects stellar evolution and the populations of compact objects which are now being characterized by e.g., ground-based gravitational wave interferometers like LIGO. I will then discuss different forms of convective boundary mixing from a fluid dynamics perspective, and present a few simulations which are helping to shed light on this tricky problem in modern stellar astrophysics.