A Scheme of Stellar Atmospheric Regions. II. Properties and Significance of Mass Flux
Abstract
Summary. We show that observed mass-fluxes from stars require photo spheric systematic velocities in excess of those which would exist if mass-fluxes came only from radiative effects. Thus we infer that chromospheres and mass-fluxes of the observed sizes are always associated, and depend upon a storage in the star of non-thermal kinetic energy. A complete picture of atmospheric structure thus requires adding mass-flux to radiative flux and gravity as the parameters necessary to compute atmospheric models. Either a fourth parameter, or specification of the storage mode for non- thermal energy is necessary to specify the kind of lateral inhomogeneities which occur. We show that such a model predicts the kind of line-broadening, and the luminosity dependence, represented by the WilsonBappu and similar effects, and to first-order it has nothing to do with turbulence. We suggest a sequence of non-radial pulsations might represent one kind of sequence of non-thermal 1(inetic energy storage. Key words: mass-flux - non-thermal kinetic energy storage - chromospheres
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- December 1973
- Bibcode:
- 1973A&A....29..297T