{"title":"Opacities and Atomic Diffusion","authors":"G. Alecian, M. Deal","doi":"10.3390/galaxies11030062","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Opacity is a fundamental quantity for stellar modeling, and it plays an essential role throughout the life of stars. After gravity drives the collapse of interstellar matter into a protostar, the opacity determines how this matter is structured around the stellar core. The opacity explains how the radiation field interacts with the matter and how a major part of the energy flows through the star. It results from all the microscopic interactions of photons with atoms. Part of the momentum exchange between photons and atoms gives rise to radiative accelerations (specific to each type of atom), which are strongly involved in a second-order process: atomic diffusion. Although this process is a slow one, it can have a significant impact on stellar structure and chemical composition measurements. In this review, we discuss the way opacities are presently computed and used in numerical codes. Atomic diffusion is described, and the current status of the consideration of this process is presented.","PeriodicalId":37570,"journal":{"name":"Galaxies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Galaxies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies11030062","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Opacity is a fundamental quantity for stellar modeling, and it plays an essential role throughout the life of stars. After gravity drives the collapse of interstellar matter into a protostar, the opacity determines how this matter is structured around the stellar core. The opacity explains how the radiation field interacts with the matter and how a major part of the energy flows through the star. It results from all the microscopic interactions of photons with atoms. Part of the momentum exchange between photons and atoms gives rise to radiative accelerations (specific to each type of atom), which are strongly involved in a second-order process: atomic diffusion. Although this process is a slow one, it can have a significant impact on stellar structure and chemical composition measurements. In this review, we discuss the way opacities are presently computed and used in numerical codes. Atomic diffusion is described, and the current status of the consideration of this process is presented.
GalaxiesPhysics and Astronomy-Astronomy and Astrophysics
CiteScore
4.90
自引率
12.00%
发文量
100
审稿时长
11 weeks
期刊介绍:
Es una revista internacional de acceso abierto revisada por pares que proporciona un foro avanzado para estudios relacionados con astronomía, astrofísica y cosmología. Areas temáticas Astronomía Astrofísica Cosmología Astronomía observacional: radio, infrarrojo, óptico, rayos X, neutrino, etc. Ciencia planetaria Equipos y tecnologías de astronomía. Ingeniería Aeroespacial Análisis de datos astronómicos. Astroquímica y Astrobiología. Arqueoastronomía Historia de la astronomía y cosmología. Problemas filosóficos en cosmología.