Turbulence and nuclear reactions in 3D hydrodynamics simulations of massive stars

¹ Astrophysics Group, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG, UK
² Kavli IPMU (WPI), University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa 277-8583, Japan
³ Geneva Observatory, Geneva University, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
⁴ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USA
⁵ Pasadena Consulting Group, 1075 N Mar Vista Ave, Pasadena, CA 91104, USA
⁶ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK

^* e-mail: f.rizzuti@keele.ac.uk

Published online: 22 March 2023

Abstract

Our knowledge of massive star evolution and nucleosynthesis is limited by uncertainties related to multi-dimensional processes taking place in stellar interiors. Recently, theoretical works have started to improve 1D stellar evolution codes through the implementation of results from 3D hydrodynamics models, which are used to study multi-D processes on a short time range (minutes or hours) and improve 1D prescriptions. In these proceedings, we present results coming from a new set of high-resolution hydrodynamics simulations of the neon-burning shell in a massive star, employing the PROMPI code. We focus in particular on the interplay between turbulence and nuclear reactions, discussing the impact that different boosting factors of the nuclear rates have on the results. This has important implications for supernova studies, nucleosynthesis, the physics of neutron stars and black holes.