arXiv subjects

Xiangcun Meng

Publications and source records attributed to Xiangcun Meng.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

The birth rate of SNe Ia from hybrid CONe white dwarfs

Considering the uncertainties of the C-burning rate (CBR) and the treatment of convective boundaries, Chen et al. (2014) found that there is a regime where it is possible to form hybrid CONe white dwarfs (WDs), i.e. ONe WDs with carbon-rich cores. As these hybrid WDs can be as massive as 1.30 $M_{\odot}$, not much mass needs to be accreted for these objects to reach the Chandrasekhar limit and to explode as Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). We have investigated their contribution to the overall SN Ia birth rate and found that such SNe Ia tend to be relatively young with typical time delays between 0.1 and 1 Gyr, where some may be as young as 30 Myr. SNe Ia from hybrid CONe WDs may contribute several percent to all SNe Ia, depending on the common-envelope ejection efficiency and the CBR. We suggest that these SNe Ia may produce part of the 2002cx-like SN Ia class.

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arXiv2013

Constraining the spin-down timescale of the white-dwarf progenitors of Type Ia supernovae

Justham (2011) and DiStefano et al.\ (2011) proposed that the white-dwarf progenitor of a Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) may have to spin down before it can explode. As the white dwarf spin-down timescale is not well known theoretically, we here try to constrain it empirically (within the framework of this spin-down model) for progenitor systems that contain a giant donor and for which circumbinary material has been detected after the explosion: we obtain an upper limit of a few $10^{\rm 7} {\rm yr}$. Based on the study of Di Stefano & Kilic (2012) this means that it is too early to rule out the existence of a surviving companion in SNR 0509-67.5.

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arXiv2013

The effects of rotation on the main-sequence turnoff of intermediate-age massive star clusters

The double or extended main-sequence turnoffs (MSTOs) in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of intermediate-age massive star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud are generally interpreted as age spreads of a few hundred Myr. However, such age spreads do not exist in younger clusters (i.e., 40-300 Myr), which challenges this interpretation. The effects of rotation on the MSTOs of star clusters have been studied in previous works, but the results obtained are conflicting. Compared with previous works, we consider the effects of rotation on the MS lifetime of stars. Our calculations show that rotating models have a fainter and redder MSTO with respect to non-rotating counterparts with ages between about 0.8 and 2.2 Gyr, but have a brighter and bluer MSTO when age is larger than 2.4 Gyr. The spread of the MSTO caused by a typical rotation rate is equivalent to the effect of an age spread of about 200 Myr. Rotation could lead to the double or extended MSTOs in the CMD of the star clusters with ages between about 0.8 and 2.2 Gyr. However, the extension is not significant; and it does not even exist in younger clusters. If the efficiency of the mixing were high enough, the effects of the mixing would counteract the effect of the centrifugal support in the late stage of evolution; and the rotationally induced extension would disappear in the old intermediate-age star clusters; but younger clusters would have an extended MSTO. Moreover, the effects of rotation might aid in understanding the formation of some "multiple populations" in globular clusters.

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arXiv2013

Evolution of rotational velocities of A-type stars

It was found that the equatorial velocity of A-type stars undergoes an acceleration in the first third of the main sequence (MS) stage, but the velocity decreases as if the stars were not undergoing any redistribution of angular momentum in the external layers in the last stage of the MS phase. Our calculations show that the acceleration and the decrease of the equatorial velocity can be reproduced by the evolution of the differential rotation zero-age MS model with the angular momentum transport caused by hydrodynamic instabilities during the MS stage. The acceleration results from the fact that the angular momentum stored in the interiors of the stars is transported outwards. In the last stage, the core and the radiative envelope are uncoupling, and the rotation of the envelope is a quasi-solid rotation; the uncoupling and the expansion of the envelope lead to that the decrease of the equatorial velocity approximately follows the slope for the change in the equatorial velocity of the model without any redistribution of angular momentum. When the fractional age 0.3 $\lesssim\mathrm{t/t_{MS}}\lesssim$ 0.5, the equatorial velocity remains almost constant for the stars whose central density increases with age in the early stage of the MS phase, while the velocity decreases with age for the stars whose central density decreases with age in the early stage of the MS phase.

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arXiv2012

Grids of rotating stellar models with masses between 1.0 and 3.0 Msun

We calculated a grid of evolutionary tracks of rotating models with masses between 1.0 and 3.0 $M_{\odot}$ and a resolution $δM \leq 0.02$ $M_{\odot}$, which can be used to study the effects of rotation on stellar evolutions and on the characteristics of star clusters. The value of $\sim$2.05 $M_{\odot}$ is a critical mass for the effects of rotation on stellar structure and evolution. For stars with $M >$ 2.05 $M_{\odot}$, rotation leads to an increase in the convective core and prolongs the lifetime of main sequence (MS); rotating models evolve slower than non-rotating ones; the effects of rotation on the evolution of these stars are similar to those of convective core overshooting. However for stars with 1.1 $< M/M_{\odot}<$ 2.05, rotation results in a decrease in the convective core and shortens the lifetime of MS; rotating models evolve faster than non-rotating ones. When the mass is located in the range of $\sim$1.7 - 2.0 $M_{\odot}$, the mixing caused by rotationally induced instabilities is not efficient; the hydrostatic effects dominate the effect on the evolution of these stars. For the models with masses between about 1.6 and 2.0 $M_{\odot}$, rotating models always exhibit lower effective temperatures than non-rotating ones at the same age during the MS stage. For a given age, the lower the mass, the smaller the change in the effective temperature. Thus rotations could lead to a color spread near the MS turnoff in the color-magnitude diagram for the intermediate-age star clusters.

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arXiv2012

The birth rate of supernovae from double-degenerate and core-degenerate systems

We make a series of Monte Carlo simulations by a rapid binary evolution code and take two treatments of CE evolution, i.e. $α$-formalism and $γ$-algorithm. We find that only for the $α$-formalism with a high CE ejection efficiency, the shape of DTD from DD systems may be consistent with that derived observationally, i.e. a power low of $\sim t^{\rm -1}$, while the value of the birth rate of SNe Ia marginally matches with observations. For the $α$-formalism with a low CE ejection efficiency and the $γ$-algorithm, neither the shape of DTD nor the value of the birth rate can be compared with that from observations. Metallicity may not significantly change the shape of DTD, but a low metallicity may slightly increase the birth rate of SNe Ia by a factor of 2, especially for SNe Ia with long delay times. If the results from the single degenerate (SD) channel is incorporated into the DTD, both the shape of DTD and its value may be well consistent with observations for SNe Ia of younger than 2.5 Gyr, and SD and DD channels show a comparable contribution to total SNe Ia, while for SNe Ia with delay time longer than 2.5 Gyr, DD is the dominant channel and the birth rate is lower than that derived from observation by a factor up to $\sim4$. In addition, we calculate the evolution of various integral parameters of DD systems, and do not find any one suitable to explain the correlation between the brightness of SNe Ia and its delay time. Moreover, there are three channels producing core-degenerate(CD) systems which may contribute a few SNe Ia, but the contribution from CD systems to total SNe Ia is not more than 1%.

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arXiv2012

Characteristics of solar-like oscillations of secondary red clump stars

We calculated the populations of core-helium-burning (CHeB) stars and found that the secondary red clump (SRC) stars can form an SRC peak in the distributions of the frequency of maximum seismic amplitude ($ν_{max}$) and mean large-frequency separation ($Δν$) of CHeB stars when metallicity $Z \geq$ 0.02. The $ν_{max}$ and $Δν$ of CHeB stars are dependent not only on He core mass but on H-shell burning. The SRC peak is composed of the CHeB stars with mass roughly between the critical mass M_{Hef} and M_{Hef}+0.2 while He core mass is between about 0.33 and 0.36 M_{sun}. The location of the SRC peak can be affected by the mixing-length parameter $α$, metallicity $Z$, and overshooting parameter $δ_{ov}$. A decrease in $α$ or increase in $Z$ or $δ_{ov}$ leads to a movement of the SRC peak towards a lower frequency. However, the change in $Z$ and $α$ only slightly affects the value of M_{Hef} but the variation in $δ_{ov}$ can significantly affects the value of M_{Hef}. Thus the SRC peak might aid in determining the value of M_{Hef} and calibrating $δ_{ov}$. In addition, the effects of convective acceleration of SRC stars and the $ν_{max}$ of `semi-degenerate' stars decreasing with mass result in the appearance of a shoulder between about 40 and 50 $μ$hz in the \dnu{} distribution. However, the convective acceleration of stars with M < M_{Hef} leads to the deficit in the $ν_{max}$ distribution between about 9 and 20 $μ$hz{}. Moreover, the value of the parameter $b$ of the relation between $ν_{max}$ and $Δν$ for the populations with M > M_{Hef} is obviously larger than that for the populations with $M <$ \dmhef{}.

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arXiv2011

The companion properties of SNe Ia from the single degenerate model

Although Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play very important roles in many astrophysical fields, the exact nature of the progenitors of SNe Ia is still unclear. At present, the single degenerate (SD) model is a very likely one. Following the comprehensive SD model developed by Meng & Yang (2010), we show the properties of SNe Ia companions at the moment of the supernova explosion. The results may provide help in searching for companion stars in supernova remnants. We compared our results with the companion candidate Tycho G of Tycho's supernova and found that integral properties of the star (mass, space velocity, radius, luminosity and effective temperature) are all consistent with those predicted from our SD model with the exception of the rotational velocity. If Tycho G was the companion star of Tycho's supernova, an interaction between supernova ejecta and the rotational companion might be a key factor to solve the confliction, and then it could be encouraged to do a detailed numerical simulation about the interaction.

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arXiv2011

The effect of metallicity on the delay-time distribution of type Ia supernova

Measuring the delay-time distribution (DTD) of type Ia supernova(SNe Ia) is an important way to constrain the progenitor nature of SNe Ia. Recently, Strolger et al. (2010) obtained a very delayed DTD, which is much different from other measurements. They suggested that metallicity could be the origin of their delayed DTD. In this paper, we show the effect of metallicity on the DTD of SNe Ia from single-degenerate models (including WD + MS and WD+RG channels). Via a binary population synthesis approach, we find that the DTD from a low metallicity population is significantly delayed compared with that from a high metallicity one. In addition, we also find that a substantial fraction of SNe Ia have a delay time shorter than 1 Gyr, and the fraction of SNe Ia with short delay times increases with metallicity, i.e. about 35% for Z=0.001, while more than 70% for Z=0.02. These results would help to qualitatively explain the result of Strolger et al. (2010). Furthermore, we noticed that the contribution of WD + RG channel from the low metallicity population is higher than that from the high metallicity one. However, we can not quantitatively obtain a DTD consistent with the results of Strolger et al. (2010) by changing metallicity. As a consequence, metallicity may partly contribute to the DTD of SNe Ia and should therefore be checked carefully when one derives the DTD of SNe Ia from observations.

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arXiv2011

Binary population synthesis study on supersoft X-ray phase of single degenerate type Ia supernova progenitors

In the single degenerate (SD) scenario for type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), a mass-accreting white dwarf is expected to experience a supersoft X-ray source (SSS) phase. However, some recent observations showed that the expected number of the mass-accreting WD is much lower than that predicted from theory, whatever in spiral or elliptical galaxies. In this paper, we did a binary population synthesis study on the relative duration of the SSS phase to their whole mass-increasing phase of WDs leading to SNe Ia. We found that for about 40% progenitor systems, the relative duration is shorter than 2% and the evolution of the mean relative duration shows that it is always smaller than 5%, whatever for young or old SNe Ia. In addition, before SNe Ia explosion, more than 55% progenitor systems are experiencing a dwarf novae phase, and only no more than 10% is staying SSS phase. These results are consistent with the recent observations, and imply that both in early- and late-type galaxies, only a small fraction of mass-accreting WD resulting in SNe Ia contribute to the supersoft X-ray flux. So, although our results are not directly related to the X-ray output of SN Ia progenitor, the low supersoft X-ray luminosity observed in early type galaxies may have no ability to exclude the validity of SD model. On the contrary, it is evidence to support the SD scenario.

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arXiv2011

The Contributions of Interactive Binary Stars to Double Main Sequence Turn-Offs and Dual Red Clump of Intermediate-Age Star Clusters

Double or extended main-sequence turn-offs (DMSTOs) and dual red clump (RC) were observed in intermediate-age clusters, such as in NGC 1846 and 419. the DMSTOs are interpreted as that the cluster has two distinct stellar popula- tions with differences in age of about 200-300 Myr but with the same metallicity. The dual RC is interpreted as a result of a prolonged star formation. Using a stellar population-synthesis method, we calculated the evolutions of binary-star stellar population (BSP). We found that binary interactions and merging can reproduce the dual RC in the color-magnitude diagrams of an intermediate-age cluster, whereas in actuality only a single population exists. Moreover, the binary interactions can lead to an extended MSTO rather than DMSTOs. However, the rest of main sequence, subgiant branch and first giant branch are hardly spread by the binary interactions. Part of the observed dual RC and extended MSTO may be the results of binary interactions and merger.

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arXiv2011

Characteristics of solar-like oscillations of clusters simulated by stellar population synthesis

Using a stellar population-synthesis method, we studied the distributions of ν_max and Δν of simulated clusters with various ages and metallicities. Except for the confirmed peak (RC peak) of Δν of red-clump (RC) stars, i.e. core-helium burning stars, there are a gap and a main sequence (MS) peak in the distributions of ν_max and Δν of young clusters. The gap corresponds mainly to the Hertzsprung gap phase of evolution. The RC peak is caused by the fact that the radius of many RC stars near the zero-age horizontal branch concentrates in a certain range. The MS peak also results from the fact that many MS stars which are located in a certain mass range have an approximate radius in the early phase of MS. The MS peak barely exists in the simulated clusters with age < 1.0 Gyr. The location of the MS peak moves to a lower frequency with increasing age or metallicity, which may be applied to constrain the age and metallicity of young clusters. For the simulated clusters with Z = 0.02, the frequency of the location of the dominant RC peak increases with age when age < 1.2 Gyr, and then decreases with age when age > 1.2 Gyr; but it scarcely varies when age > 2.4 Gyr. This is relative to the degeneracy of the hydrogen-exhausted core at the time of helium ignition. In addition, the RC peak is not sensitive to the metallicity, especially for the clusters with age > 2.4 Gyr. Asteroseismical observation for clusters with age < 2.4 Gyr may aid in testing the theory of the degeneracy of the hydrogen-exhausted core. Moreover, for the clusters with 1.1 M{\odot} < M_hook < 1.3 M{\odot}, there are a MS gap and a peak on the left of the MS gap in the distributions ofν_max and Δν, which may be applied to constrain the central hydrogen abundance of stars in the MS gap and the peak.

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arXiv2010

The birth rate of subluminous and overluminous type Ia supernovae

Based on the results of Chen & Li (2009) and Pakmor et al. (2010), we carried out a series of binary population synthesis calculations and considered two treatment of common envelope (CE) evolution, i.e. $α$-formalism and $γ$-algorithm. We found that the evolution of birth rate of these peculiar SNe Ia is heavily dependent on how to treat the CE evolution. The over-luminous SNe Ia may only occur for $α$-formalism with low CE ejection efficiency and the delay time of the SNe Ia is between 0.4 and 0.8 Gyr. The upper limit of the contribution rate of the supernovae to all SN Ia is less than 0.3%. The delay time of sub-luminous SNe Ia from equal-mass DD systems is between 0.1 and 0.3 Gyr for $α$-formalism with $α=3.0$, while longer than 9 Gyr for $α=1.0$. The range of the delay time for $γ$-algorithm is very wide, i.e. longer than 0.22 Gyr, even as long as 15 Gyr. The sub-luminous SNe Ia from equal-mass DD systems may only account for no more than 1% of all SNe Ia observed. The super-Chandrasekhar mass model of Chen & Li (2009) may account for a part of 2003fg-like supernovae and the equal-mass DD model developed by Pakmor et al. (2010) may explain some 1991bg-like events, too. In addition, based on the comparison between theories and observations, including the birth rate and delay time of the 1991bg-like events, we found that the $γ$-algorithm is more likely to be an appropriate prescription of the CE evolution of DD systems than the $α$-formalism if the equal-mass DD systems is the progenitor of 1991bg-like SNe Ia.

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arXiv2010

The effects of stellar population synthesis on the distributions of the asteroseismic observables ν_max and Δν of red-clump stars

The distributions of the frequencies of the maximum oscillation Power (ν_max) and the large frequency separation ( Δν) of red giant stars observed by CoRoT have a dominant peak. Miglio et al. (2009) identified that the stars are red-clump stars. Using stellar population synthesis method, we studied the effects of Reimers mass loss, binary interactions, star formation rate and the mixing-length parameter on the distributions of the ν_max and Δν of red-clump stars. The Reimers mass loss can result in an increase in the ν_max and Δν of old population which lost a considerable amount of mass. However, it leads to a small decrease in those of middle-age population which lost a little bit of mass. Furthermore, a high mass-loss rate impedes the low-mass and low-metal stars evolving into core-helium burning (CHeB) stage. Both Reimers mass loss and star formation rate mainly affect the number of CHeB stars with ν_max and Δν, but hardly affect the peak locations of ν_max and Δν. Binary interactions also can lead to an increase or decrease in the ν_max and Δν of some stars. However, the fraction of CHeB stars undergoing binary interactions is very small in our simulations. Therefore, the peak locations are also not affected by binary interactions. The non-uniform distributions of ν_max and Δν are mainly caused by the most of red-clump stars having an approximate radius rather than mass. The radius of red-clump stars decreases with increasing the mixing-length parameter. The peak locations of ν_max and Δν can, thus, be affected by the mixing-length parameter.

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arXiv2010

The envelope mass of red giant donors in Type Ia supernova progenitors

We compute the remaining amounts of hydrogen in red giant donors to see whether the conflict between theory and observations can be overcome. By considering the mass-stripping effect from an optically thick wind and the effect of thermally unstable disk, we systematically carried out binary evolution calculation for WD + MS and WD + RG systems. Here, we focus on the evolution of WD + RG systems. We found that some donor stars at the time of the supernova explosion contain little hydrogen-rich material on top of the helium core (as low as 0.017 $M_{\odot}$), which is smaller than the upper limit to the amount derived from observations of material stripped-off by explosion ejecta. Thus, no hydrogen line is expected in the nebular spectra of these SN Ia. We also derive the distributions of the envelope mass and the core mass of the companions from WD + RG channel at the moment of a supernova explosion by adopting a binary population synthesis approach. We rarely find a RG companion with a very low-mass envelope. Furthermore, our models imply that the remnant of the WD + RG channel emerging after the supernova explosion is a single low-mass white dwarf (0.15 $M_{\odot}$ - 0.30 $M_{\odot}$). The absence of a hydrogen line in nebular spectra of SNe Ia provides support to the proposal that the WD + RG system is the progenitor of SNe Ia.

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arXiv2010

A comprehensive progenitor model for SNe Ia

Incorporating the effect of mass-stripping and accretion-disk instability on the evolution of WD binary, we carried out binary stellar evolution calculations for more than 1600 close WD binaries. As a result, the initial parameter spaces for SNe Ia are presented in an orbital period-secondary mass ($\log P_{\rm i}, M_{\rm 2}^{\rm i}$) plane. We confirmed that in a WD + MS system, the initial companion leading to SNe Ia may have mass from 1 $M_{\odot}$ to 5 $M_{\odot}$. The initial WD mass for SNe Ia from WD + MS channel is as low as 0.565 $M_{\odot}$, while the lowest WD mass from the WD + RG channel is 1.0 $M_{\odot}$. Adopting the results above, we studied the birth rate of SNe Ia via a binary population synthesis approach. We found that the Galactic SNe Ia birth rate from SD model is $2.55 - 2.9\times10^{\rm -3}$ ${\rm yr}^{\rm -1}$ (including WD + He star channel), which is slightly smaller than that from observation. If a single starburst is assumed, the distribution of the delay time of SNe Ia from the SD model is a weak bimodality, where WD + He channel contribute to SNe Ia with delay time shorter than $10^{\rm 8}$ yr and WD + RG channel to those with age longer than 6 Gyr.

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arXiv2009

WD + MS systems as the progenitor of SNe Ia

We show the initial and final parameter space for SNe Ia in a ($\log P^{\rm i}, M_{\rm 2}^{\rm i}$) plane and find that the positions of some famous recurrent novae, as well as a supersoft X-ray source (SSS), RX J0513.9-6951, are well explained by our model. The model can also explain the space velocity and mass of Tycho G, which is now suggested to be the companion star of Tycho's supernova. Our study indicates that the SSS, V Sge, might be the potential progenitor of supernovae like SN 2002ic if the delayed dynamical-instability model due to Han & Podsiadlowski (2006) is appropriate. Following the work of Meng, Chen & Han (2009), we found that the SD model (WD + MS) with an optically thick wind can explain the birth rate of supernovae like SN 2006X and reproduce the distribution of the color excess of SNe Ia. The model also predicts that at least 75% of all SNe Ia may show a polarization signal in their spectra.

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arXiv2009

Frequency separation variations of the solar low-degree p-modes

Variations of frequency separations of low-degree p-modes are studied over the solar activity cycle. The separations studied are obtained from the frequencies of low-degree p-modes of the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG). 10.7 cm radio flux is used as an index of solar activity. Small separations of the p-mode frequencies are considered to be mainly dependent on the conditions in stellar interiors. Thus they could be applied to diagnose the changes in the stellar interior. Our calculation results show that the magnitudes of variations of the mean large separations are less than 1 $σ$ over the solar activity cycle. Small separations show different behaviors in the ascending and descending phases of activity. In the ascending phase, variations of the small separations are less than 1 $σ$. However, the small separations have systematic shifts during 2004 - 2007. The shifts are roughly 1 $σ$ or more. The variations of the ratios of the small to large separations with time are similar to the changes of the small separations. The effects of the changes in the large separations on the ratios are negligible. The variations of the separations may be a consequence of the influence from the surface activity or systematic errors in measurements or some processes taking place in the solar interior.

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