On the theory of thermal runaway in the hydrogen envelope of a white dwarf
Abstract
An evolutionary sequence was calculated for a white dwarf on which a hydrogen rich envelope is assumed to increase with time. The stellar models were computed by integrating numerically the system of stellar structure equations by means of the Henyey method. The accretion of matter was assumed to be quasi-static. Near the point of the chemical discontinuity, a temperature maximum is shown to arise, and hydrogen ignites; a thin shell energy source is formed which is thermally unstable. The resulting thermal runaway was investigated numerically and by means of a simple approximation based on the energy balance in the hydrogen burning shell source.
- Publication:
-
Astrometrics and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- December 1974
- Bibcode:
- 1974amap.nasa....1R
- Keywords:
-
- Hydrogen;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Thermal Instability;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Combustion Physics;
- Energy Sources;
- Equations Of State;
- Mathematical Models;
- Numerical Analysis;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Thin Walled Shells;
- Astrophysics