Radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of surface convection in low-mass stars: connections to stellar structure and asteroseismology

TL;DR

This paper uses radiation-hydrodynamical simulations to study surface convection in low-mass stars, aiming to improve understanding of stellar structure and asteroseismology, and discusses the calibration of the mixing-length parameter and its implications.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the efficiency of convective energy transport and photometric micro-variability in low-mass stars through detailed simulations and analysis.

Findings

Convection efficiency estimates help refine stellar models.

Micro-variability modeling aids asteroseismology studies.

Calibration issues of the mixing-length parameter are highlighted.

Abstract

Radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of surface convection in low-mass stars can be exploited to derive estimates of i) the efficiency of the convective energy transport in the stellar surface layers; ii) the convection-related photometric micro-variability. We comment on the universality of the mixing-length parameter, and point out potential pitfalls in the process of its calibration which may be in part responsible for the contradictory findings about its variability across the Hertzsprung-Russell digramme. We further comment on the modelling of the photometric micro-variability in HD49933 - one of the first main COROT targets.