Exploring MESA models

Let’s look at the output from the MESA stellar evolution code for 3 different mass progenitors: 1, 8, and 15 \(M_\odot\). These models were all created using MESA Web a web-based interface to MESA for quick calculations.

To read in these files, we use py_mesa_reader

Note

py_mesa_reader is not available on PyPI, so it can be installed using pip as:

pip install git+https://github.com/wmwolf/py_mesa_reader

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import mesa_reader as mr

MESA provides 2 types of output: profiles and a history. The profiles represent a snapshot of the start at one instance of time and give the stellar data as a function of radius or enclosed mass. The history provides some global quantities as a function of time throughout the entire evolution of the star. We’ll use both.

The model files are:

• \(1 M_\odot\): M1_default_profile8.data; M1_default_profile218.data; M1_default_trimmed_history.data

• \(8 M_\odot\): M8_basic_co_profile8.data; M8_basic_co_profile39.data; M8_basic_co_trimmed_history.data

• \(15 M_\odot\): M15_aprox21_profile8.data; M15_aprox21_profile19.data; M15_aprox21_trimmed_history.data

To make the management easier, we’ll create a container for each model that holds the history and profiles, processed by py_mesa_reader

class Model:
    def __init__(self, mass, profiles=None, history=None):
        self.mass = mass
        if history:
            self.history = mr.MesaData(history)
        self.profiles = []
        if profiles:
            for p in profiles:
                self.profiles.append(mr.MesaData(p))

Now read in all the data. For each mass we have 2 profiles and 1 history. The profiles were picked to roughly correspond to the midpoint of core H burning and core He burning.

models = []

models.append(Model(1, profiles=["M1_default_profile8.data",
                                 "M1_default_profile218.data"],
                    history="M1_default_trimmed_history.data"))

models.append(Model(8, profiles=["M8_basic_co_profile8.data",
                                 "M8_basic_co_profile39.data"],
                    history="M8_basic_co_trimmed_history.data"))

models.append(Model(15, profiles=["M15_aprox21_profile8.data",
                                  "M15_aprox21_profile19.data"],
                    history="M15_aprox21_trimmed_history.data"))

HR diagram

Now we’ll make an HR diagram and label the points where \(H\) and \(He\) burning commences.

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for star in models:
    ax.loglog(star.history.Teff, star.history.L,
              label=rf"{star.mass} $M_\odot$")

ax.legend()
ax.set_xlabel("T (K)")
ax.set_ylabel("L ($L_\odot$)")
ax.invert_xaxis()

You can see the main sequence clearly on this plot.

We also see that only the 1 solar mass star “finished’ stellar evolution, winding up as a cooling white dwarf at the end – the path it is following is essentially a line of constant radius, since the white dwarf does not contract as it cools (it is degenerate).

Central evolution

We want to plot the history of the evolution of the central conditions in the \(\log \rho\)-\(\log T\) plane.

We will plot the EOS boundary lines considered before. These functions are now in a module, regimes.py to make our life easier.

import regimes

Now we can plot the data

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for star in models:
    ax.loglog(star.history.center_T, star.history.center_Rho,
              label=rf"{star.mass} $M_\odot$")

rho = np.logspace(-5, 8, 100)
ax.loglog(regimes.deg_ideal(rho, mu_e=1.3), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.loglog(regimes.rad_ideal(rho, mu=0.6), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.legend()

ax.set_xlabel(r"$T_c$ [K]")
ax.set_ylabel(r"$\rho_c$ [g/cc]")

ax.set_xlim(1.e5, 1.e9)

(100000.0, 1000000000.0)

Some observations:

• The higher mass stars are closer to the line where radiation dominates.

• The 1 solar mass star makes a transition from following \(T \approx \rho^{1/3}\) to \(\rho = \mbox{constant}\) when degeneracy kicks in.

• The other stars more or less follow the \(T \approx \rho^{1/3}\) trend expected from polytropes + ideal gas.

We can also add approximate ignition curves, by setting

\[\epsilon = \epsilon_\mathrm{min}\]

where we use \(\epsilon_\mathrm{min} = 10^3~\mathrm{erg~g^{-1}~s^{-1}}\).

T_H = np.logspace(6.8, 7.5, 100)
rho_H = regimes.q_H(T_H)

T_He = np.logspace(7.9, 8.3, 100)
rho_He = regimes.q_He(T_He)

ax.plot(T_H, rho_H, ls="--", color="0.5")
ax.plot(T_He, rho_He, ls="--", color="0.5")

fig

Main sequence lifetime

We can estimate the main sequence lifetime just by looking for when the core H is all consumed.

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
for star in models:
    ax.semilogx(star.history.star_age, star.history.center_h1, label=rf"{star.mass} $M_\odot$")
ax.legend()
ax.set_xlabel("t (yr)")
ax.set_ylabel("X[H1]")
ax.grid()
ax.set_xlim(1.e4, 2.e10)

(10000.0, 20000000000.0)

From this plot, we see that the main sequence lifetime of the 15 \(M_\odot\) star is \(\sim 6\times 10^6\) yr, for the 8 \(M_\odot\) star \(\sim 2\times 10^7\) yr, and for the 1 \(M_\odot\) star \(\sim 9\times 10^9\) yr.

Profiles

Let’s next look at the profiles of the stars in the \(\log \rho\)-\(\log T\) plane

First the 1 solar mass star

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for p in models[0].profiles:
    ax.plot(p.T, p.Rho, label=f"t = {p.star_age:10.3g} yr")

ax.loglog(regimes.deg_ideal(rho, mu_e=1.3), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.loglog(regimes.rad_ideal(rho, mu=0.6), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.legend()

ax.plot(T_H, rho_H, ls="--", color="0.5")
ax.plot(T_He, rho_He, ls="--", color="0.5")

ax.set_xlabel(r"$T(m)$ [K]")
ax.set_ylabel(r"$\rho(m)$ [g/cc]")

ax.set_xlim(1.e3, 1.e9)

(1000.0, 1000000000.0)

Now the 8 solar mass star

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for p in models[1].profiles:
    ax.plot(p.T, p.Rho, label=f"t = {p.star_age:10.3g} yr")

ax.loglog(regimes.deg_ideal(rho, mu_e=1.3), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.loglog(regimes.rad_ideal(rho, mu=0.6), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.legend()

ax.plot(T_H, rho_H, ls="--", color="0.5")
ax.plot(T_He, rho_He, ls="--", color="0.5")

ax.set_xlabel(r"$T(m)$ [K]")
ax.set_ylabel(r"$\rho(m)$ [g/cc]")

ax.set_xlim(1.e3, 1.e9)

(1000.0, 1000000000.0)

Finally the 15 solar mass star

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for p in models[2].profiles:
    ax.plot(p.T, p.Rho, label=f"t = {p.star_age:10.3g} yr")

ax.loglog(regimes.deg_ideal(rho, mu_e=1.3), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.loglog(regimes.rad_ideal(rho, mu=0.6), rho, color="0.5", ls=":")
ax.legend()

ax.plot(T_H, rho_H, ls="--", color="0.5")
ax.plot(T_He, rho_He, ls="--", color="0.5")

ax.set_xlabel(r"$T(m)$ [K]")
ax.set_ylabel(r"$\rho(m)$ [g/cc]")

ax.set_xlim(1.e3, 1.e9)

(1000.0, 1000000000.0)

Convection

We can look at where the models are convective by comparing \(\nabla\) and \(\nabla_\mathrm{ad}\).

First the H burning profiles

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for star in models:
    ax.plot(star.profiles[0].mass, star.profiles[0].gradT - star.profiles[0].grada,
            label=rf"{star.mass} $M_\odot$")

ax.set_xlabel("enclosed mass ($M_\odot$)")
ax.set_ylabel(r"$\nabla - \nabla_\mathrm{ad}$")
ax.set_xscale("log")
ax.legend()
ax.grid(linestyle=":")

We see that the massive stars have convective cores \(\nabla \sim \nabla_\mathrm{ad}\), but the 1 solar mass star has a radiative core.

Let’s look at the same plot, but in terms of radius

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for star in models:
    ax.plot(star.profiles[0].radius, star.profiles[0].gradT - star.profiles[0].grada,
            label=rf"{star.mass} $M_\odot$")

ax.set_xlabel("radius ($R_\odot$)")
ax.set_ylabel(r"$\nabla - \nabla_\mathrm{ad}$")
#ax.set_xscale("log")
ax.legend()
ax.grid(linestyle=":")

On this scale, we see that the Sun’s outer convective zone is ~ 1/3rd of its radius