Exploring hydrodynamical stellar tachoclines along stellar evolution

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the evolution of differential rotation in stellar convection zones influences the dynamics and mixing processes within stellar tachoclines, using hydrodynamical modeling to understand their role in stellar evolution.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Mathis Zahn 2004's formalism effectively models hydrodynamical stellar tachoclines across different rotation regimes during stellar evolution.

Findings

Modeling shows differential rotation regimes significantly affect tachocline dynamics.

Hydrodynamical formalism can coherently simulate tachocline behavior throughout stellar evolution.

Transport processes in tachoclines vary with the star's rotational evolution.

Abstract

Stellar tachoclines are thin regions located between the radiative core and the convective envelope of solar-type stars. They are defined as layers where the rotation of the radiative interior transitions to the differential rotation of the convective envelope, generating strong shear and turbulence. As such, understanding the dynamics of the transport and mixing inside stellar tachoclines would shed light on how the dynamical processes of the convection zone might affect the secular transport of the radiative zone. In particular, we investigate how the change of the latitudinal differential rotation in the convection zone with stellar evolution would affect the dynamics of the tachocline. Indeed, as solar-type stars are braked on the Main Sequence, the differential rotation in the convection zone is expected to evolve from a cylindrical rapidly-rotating regime (columns of varying velocities, aligned with the rotation axis) to a conical solar-like regime (with an equatorial acceleration as in the case of the Sun) and finally to a conical anti-solar-like regime (with a polar acceleration). However, stellar evolutionary codes currently only consider at best the solar conical regime to study the dynamics of stellar tachoclines throughout the evolution of stars. We discuss different possibilities to model hydrodynamical tachoclines and we show that Mathis Zahn 2004's formalism is able to treat coherently hydrodynamical stellar tachoclines when taken in the thin layer approximation. We use it to model the differential rotation, meridional circulation, and mixing coefficients inside the tachocline in order to examine the effect of the different rotation regimes on the transport.