John Lattanzio's He-3/Big Bang/Djehuty Page

• Press Releases
  • The Monash Press release
  • The LLNL press release.

• The paper:
  • The Science Express paper
  • A preprint

  

• Movie 1
  • A movie showing the formation of H from the He-3 instability.
    
  • Text for the movie:
    Deep in the interior of a red giant star, hydrogen rich clouds (red) are seen to float above the hydrogen burning shell (blue). In this three dimensional simulation, the energy production rate in the burning shell exceeds that of the sun by a factor greater than 100. It heats the previously homogeneous region around it converting 3He to 4He and hydrogen, producing a hydrogen rich region that is buoyant and fragments into rising clouds. This previously unrecognized mixing mechanism resolves the problem of 3He overproduction in low mass stars.
  • A still from the movie (yellow background)
  • A still from the movie (white background)
  • See also here

  

• Movie 2
  • Another movie showing the formation of H from the He-3 instability.
    
  • See also here

• The initial formation of the unstable layer.
  • image
  • Text for image:
    One dimensional modeling of of low mass red giants results in a hydrogen burning shell (rendered in red), surrounded by a homogeneous, hydrogen rich envelope. As the shell burns into the envelope, a molecular weight gradient develops in the stable region surrounding the shell, shown as a color background with blue indicating high molecular weight and yellow indicating low. The lowest mean molecular weight occurs in a circular (spherical) area just outside of the shell, where 3He is converted to 4He and hydrogen. One dimensional codes do not recognize that this situation is Raleigh-Taylor unstable and leads to deeper mixing as seen in our three dimensional simulations. This new mixing mechanism resolves the conflict between Big Bang nucleosynthesis and 3He overproduction in the evolution of low mass stars.

• More information on Djehuty

  

• Back to JL's web page

• Other places that carried the story:
  • PhysOrg.com
  • The Canberra Times
  • The Australian
  • CBC News
  • CCN News
  • What's Next in Science and Technology
  • Science Daily
  • SpaceRef.com
  • Innovations Report
  • Supercomputing Online
  • The Iran Daily (!)
  • Interview with Dearborn
  • Physics Web
  • New Scientist
  • Space Daily

Professor John Lattanzio
School of Mathematical Sciences
Monash University
Victoria 3800
Australia
Phone: +61 (0)3 9905-4428
Fax: +61 (0)3 9905-4403
Email: john.lattanzio@sci.monash.edu.au

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