Chemical element transport in stellar evolution models

TL;DR

This paper reviews how chemical element transport mechanisms are modeled in stellar evolution, highlighting their implementation, uncertainties, and impact on the accuracy of stellar models used in astrophysics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current transport mechanisms, their uncertainties, and observational constraints in stellar evolution models.

Findings

Different transport mechanisms are incorporated with varying degrees of uncertainty.

Transport processes significantly influence chemical abundance profiles in stars.

Observational data help constrain and improve transport models.

Abstract

Stellar evolution computations provide the foundation of several methods applied to study the evolutionary properties of stars and stellar populations, both Galactic and extragalactic. The accuracy of the results obtained with these techniques is linked to the accuracy of the stellar models, and in this context the correct treatment of the transport of chemical elements is crucial. Unfortunately, in many respects calculations of the evolution of the chemical abundance profiles in stars are still affected by sometime sizable uncertainties. Here, we review the various mechanisms of element transport included in the current generation of stellar evolution calculations, how they are implemented, the free parameters and uncertainties involved, the impact on the models, and the observational constraints.