The thermal stability of hydrogen-burning shells
Date
1985
Authors
Von Rudloff, Ilmo Robert
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Abstract
The thermal stability of hydrogen- burning shells in lowmass stars typical of globular clusters has been investigated. A significant tendency towards instability is found to occur as they evolve into red giants, at a location on the colour-magnitude diagram where some globular clusters exhibit a peculiar gap. Heavy-element content, and to a lesser extent, mass and helium abundance are found to affect the degree of instability, through their effects on the temperature dependence of the energy generation rate in the shell. None of the models studied were found to be unstable; however some speculations are offered as to how further destabilization could occur.