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Article
Dissipation Efficiency in Turbulent Convective Zones in Low Mass Stars
The Astrophysical Journal (2009)
  • Kaloyan Penev, Harvard University
  • Dimitar Sasselov, Harvard University
  • Frank Robinson, Yale University
  • Pierre Demarque, Yale University
Abstract
We extend the analysis of Penev et al. to calculate effective viscosities for the surface convective zones of three main-sequence stars of 0.775 M☉, 0.85 M☉, and the present day Sun. In addition, we also pay careful attention to all normalization factors and assumptions in order to derive actual numerical prescriptions for the effective viscosity as a function of the period and direction of the external shear. Our results are applicable for periods that are too long to correspond to eddies that fall within the inertial subrange of Kolmogorov scaling, but no larger than the convective turnover time, when the assumptions of the calculation break down. We find moderately anisotropic viscosity, scaling linearly with the period of the external perturbation, with its components having magnitudes between three and ten times smaller than the Zahn's prescription.
Publication Date
October 20, 2009
DOI
10.1088/0004-637X/704/2/930
Citation Information
Kaloyan Penev, Dimitar Sasselov, Frank Robinson and Pierre Demarque. "Dissipation Efficiency in Turbulent Convective Zones in Low Mass Stars" The Astrophysical Journal Vol. 704 Iss. 2 (2009) p. 930 - 936
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/frank-robinson/7/