Anisotropic turbulent transport in stably stratified rotating stellar radiation zones

TL;DR

This paper develops a new theoretical model for anisotropic turbulent transport in stellar radiation zones considering stratification and rotation, and implements it in a stellar evolution code to assess its impact.

Contribution

A novel spectral formalism-derived prescription for anisotropic turbulent transport in stellar radiation zones, accounting for stratification and rotation, integrated into a stellar evolution model.

Findings

Horizontal turbulent transport is comparable to previous models but can be locally larger.

The anisotropy scales with $N^4\tau^2/2\Omega^2$, affecting transport efficiency.

Additional mechanisms like gravity waves or magnetic fields are needed for observed angular momentum transport.

Abstract

Rotation is one of the key physical mechanisms that deeply impact the evolution of stars. Helio- and asteroseismology reveal a strong extraction of angular momentum from stellar radiation zones over the whole Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Turbulent transport in differentially rotating stably stratified stellar radiation zones should be carefully modeled and its strength evaluated. Stratification and rotation imply that this turbulent transport is anisotropic. Only phenomenological prescriptions have been proposed for the transport in the horizontal direction, which however constitutes a cornerstone in current theoretical formalisms for stellar hydrodynamics in evolution codes. We derive a new theoretical prescription for the anisotropy of the turbulent transport in radiation zones using a spectral formalism for turbulence that takes simultaneously stable stratification, rotation, and a radial shear into account. Then, the horizontal turbulent transport resulting from 3D turbulent motions sustained by the instability of the radial differential rotation is derived. We implement this framework in the stellar evolution code STAREVOL and quantify its impact on the rotational and structural evolution of low-mass stars from the pre-main-sequence to the red giant branch. The anisotropy of the turbulent transport scales as $N^4\tau^2/\left(2\Omega^2\right)$, $N$ and $\Omega$ being the buoyancy and rotation frequencies respectively and $\tau$ a time characterizing the source of turbulence. This leads to a horizontal turbulent transport of similar strength in average that those obtained with previously proposed prescriptions even if it can be locally larger below the convective envelope. As a consequence, a complementary transport mechanism like internal gravity waves or magnetic fields is still needed to explain the observed strong transport of angular momentum along stellar evolution.